Fourth-ranked test for Football

Eleven miles separate Lehigh University and Lafayette College.

Worlds separate their football programs.

The Penn football team (1-0) warmed up last week by trouncing Northeast Pennsylvania's whipping boy, the Lafayette Leopards, 52-21.

But tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m., the Quakers will take on the area's varsity club, the Lehigh Engineers (3-0, 1-0 Patriot League), in Penn's home opener at Franklin Field.

The explosive Lehigh team, which defeated Georgetown by a score of 69-0 in its lone league game this season, comes to Philadelphia as the fourth-ranked Division I-AA team in the nation.

"You may be able to get away with three turnovers against Lafayette, but you probably won't against Lehigh," said Penn coach Al Bagnoli, referring to last week's miscues.

The Engineers have won 26 consecutive regular season contests.

In Lehigh's last game against Princeton, the Tigers rolled into halftime with a commanding 24-7 advantage, greatly threatening the Engineers' three-year long run of dominance.

But Princeton was unable to do anything in the second half, as Lehigh scored 24 unanswered points to emerge with a thrilling 31-24 victory in Bethlehem.

Penn will hope to apply some of what Princeton did, excluding their monumental collapse.

"Princeton did a nice job, but they just couldn't close the deal," Bagnoli said. "It was like a tale of two halves. By the time they got to the fourth quarter, it was like two different teams."

Lehigh's offensive numbers this season leap off the page.

The 31 points they dropped on the Tigers represents the fewest they've scored this year. They have scored a total of 137 this year, or 45.7 per game.

They are also far from one-dimensional. Quarterback Chad Schwenk has already thrown eight touchdown passes, and Lehigh's running backs are producing more than 150 yards per game on the ground.

"They've got what a good offense needs to have -- and explosive tailback who can run and catch, two or three receivers who can vertically stretch you, and a tight end and fullback who they're very comfortable throwing the ball to," Bagnoli said.

"So they can have their base personnel and still line up in different sets that spread your defense all over the place. They cause some stress that way because they're very balanced."

What makes this matchup especially intriguing, though, is that Penn and Lehigh both run the same style offense. Each has had phenomenal success with it over the past couple years.

Consequently, both coaching staffs figure to have experimented with some new plays in an attempt to throw off the opposing defense.

"Our coaches put in a couple wrinkles this week since Lehigh knows our offense too," Penn senior wide receiver Rob Milanese said.

Milanese is just 35 receiving yards shy of establishing the all-time Penn mark, and given both the Quakers and Engineers' penchant for points, the record might come tomorrow before sunset.

The Franklin Lakes, N.J., native says he is not really focusing on the record, but is very excited about playing in his final home opener.

"We hate this turf during practice, but during the game, I think it's an advantage," Milanese said.

The opponent "is not used to how bad the surface is. We won't be tripping over ourselves like they probably will be."

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