BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Yale Bulldogs played their first road football game of the season on Saturday afternoon and rolled past the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, 34-0, to keep the Yank Townsend trophy in New Haven. Seven different Bulldogs connected on touchdowns as Yale posted its first shutout since 2017.
 
The Yale defense held Lehigh to just 146 total yards with 103 in the air and 43 on the ground. The line and backers racked up eight sacks on the day, tied for the most under head coach Tony Reno. Sophomore lineman Clay Patterson totaled game-highs with four sacks, nine solo tackles and five tackles for loss.
 
"I thought we improved for the second week in a row after our first-week setback. We have a long way to go to being back to a championship-level team but we are better than we were a week ago," said Reno. "We talked a lot about stopping the run on the way to quarterback and our defensive line and linebackers did a great job of that all day and got consistent pressure to disrupt Lehigh."

The Yale defense racked up 13 tackles for loss in the game and only allowed 11 completions. Junior defensive end Reid Nickerson had two sacks in the game and added two other quarterback hits. Junior tackle Adam Raine and junior linebacker Hamilton Moore also added sacks.
 
On offense, the Bulldogs totaled 420 yards of offense as sophomore quarterback Nolan Grooms came on in relief of junior Griffin O'Connor who had already thrown a touchdown. Grooms finished the game 6-of-8 for 122 yards and two scores while adding 30 yards on the ground. Sophomore wideout Mason Tipton led all receivers with 122 yards and a score.
 
On the ground, senior Zane Dudek led the attack with 56 yards and a score on seven carries to pace the unit that totaled 175 yards. Dudek's fourth carry in the game gave him 400 career rushes for 2,506 yards; good for a 6.3 yards per rush average. His mark now qualifies for the highest total in Yale history, passing Bulldog great Dick Jauron '73 and his 5.7 average (515 carries, 2,947 yards. Dudek now has 2,544 yards which ranks seventh all-time at Yale and just 32 yards back of Rich Diana '82 for sixth (2,576).
 
Senior Elliott McElwain nearly matched Dudek with 51 yards while junior Spencer Alston had 24 yards and score.
 
Seven different receivers caught passes in the game including five to Melvin Rouse II. The Bulldogs got scores from first-year David Pantelis, who came down with his first career catch for the touchdown, and Chase Nenad who now has two career catches and two career scores.
 
The Yale defense racked up 13 tackles for loss in the game and only allowed 11 completions. Junior defensive end Reid Nickerson had two sacks in the game and added two other quarterback hits. Junior tackle Adam Raine and junior linebacker Hamilton Moore also added sacks.
 
The scoring got started early for Yale as O'Connor connected with Pantelis from 27 yards out on the first drive. Dudek added his score 2:12 into the second and Tipton got loose for a 57-yard completion from rooms with just 81 seconds left in the half.
 
Alston and Nenad added their touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, while Yale defense held Lehigh on a fourth down conversion in the red zone with only 56 seconds left in regulation to secure the shutout.
 
The Bulldogs continue their three-game road swing next Saturday, October 9, at Dartmouth.