Sept. 14, 2011

"It's his football team," Lafayette's backup quarterback, Andrew Shoop, said about starter Ryan O'Neil at the completion of an intrasquad scrimmage on Aug. 21.

On Tuesday, less than a month later, Shoop said, "Right now, it's my team; it has to be my team."

Things changed early in the third quarter Saturday night at Georgetown when O'Neil, in coach Frank Tavani's words, "took a pretty vicious blow to the back of the head, his helmet popped off and then he got hit again in the middle of that pile, which gave him a pretty nice lump on the back of his head." The result was predictable: a concussion.

Shoop rushed in and completed three passes on his first four plays, the last one for a 38-yard touchdown to wide receiver Mitch Bennett. Lafayette suffered a heartbreaking 14-13 loss when the Hoyas scored a fourth-quarter touchdown; and the Leopards take an 0-2 record and a five-game losing streak to Franklin Field at 6 p.m. Saturday for a meeting with defending Ivy League champion Penn.

For the complete article by Paul Reinhard of the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call click here