ITHACA, N.Y. — Lehigh scored a pair of touchdowns in a span of nine seconds in the first quarter, then held off the Big Red's second-half surge for a 31-14 victory on Saturday to dampen Homecoming in front of 14,333 fans at Schoellkopf Field.

The Big Red had a number of young players contribute, as each of the team's 44 passes were thrown by freshmen, each of the 27 carries were by first-year players and 15 of 17 catches were by freshmen or sophomores. Cornell's three leading tacklers on defense were either freshmen or sophomores.

Sophomore wide receiver Collin Shaw reeled in four catches for 119 yards, including one touchdown, in his first career 100-yard game. Freshman running back Josh Sweet gained 55 yards on 11 carries for the Big Red, while classmate Demetrius Daltirus carroes 11 times for 46 yards. Junior tight end Matt Doneth hauled in his first career scoring catch as well in the loss with a 2-yard touchdown catch that brough the home team back within 17-14 midway through the fourth.

Defensively, sophomore Miles Norris had 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks, while freshman Nick Gesualdi (eight tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss), sophomore Jackson Weber (eight tackles) and senior Rush Imhotep (eight tackles, one pass breakup) were at the top of the tackles chart. Jonathan Ford had a pair of tackles for loss and a sack as the Big Red posted nine total tackles for loss and four sacks on the afternoon. Sophomore punter Chris Fraser had a solid effort, averaging 44.1 yards on nine punts with two pinned inside the 20.

Lehigh (1-5) opened the scoring with Ryan Pandy's 32-yard field goal six and a half minutes into the game. Rick Sodeke's 59-yard rush set up Nick Shafinsky's 1-yard score with about five minutes to play in the quarter, then a fumble on the ensuing kickoff was scooped up by Jason Suggs for and returned to the end zone. Pandy's extra point gave the Mountain Hawks a 17-0 lead.
 
Cornell (0-5) found traction in the second quarter, outgaining Lehigh in total yardage. But a pair of interceptions derailed drives of 30-plus yards, and the score remained unchanged into the break.
 
The Big Red got a boost early in the third quarter with a big play on special teams. Del Barnes got around the right end to block a field goal attempt from 37 yards.
 
Cornell got on the board with Shaw's juggling run-and-catch for a 58-yard touchdown up the left side. The pass gave the Big Red at least one touchdown reception in 21 consecutive games — but it wasn't its last trip into the end zone on the day.
 
Lehigh moved into Cornell territory on its first two possessions of the fourth quarter, but the first ended in a punt and the second led to a turnover on downs after a low snap forced the Mountain Hawks' punter to merely collect the ball and take a 12-yard loss on fourth down.
 
On the next play, freshman quarterback Kyle Gallagher unleashed a 40-yard reception to Shaw down to the Lehigh 1. After a pair of failed rushes up the middle, Gallagher found Doneth in the back-left corner of the end zone on a play-action pass from 2 yards out. John Wells' extra point cut the Big Red's deficit to 17-14.
 
But Lehigh responded with a 12-play, 78-yard touchdown drive to give itself a little breathing room as time started to wane. After the Big Red turned the ball over on downs deep in its own territory in the final minutes, the Mountain Hawks added another score on Rich Sodeke's 7-yard touchdown rush to pad the score.
 
Cornell is back in action at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, when it travels to Brown.