Three will be lots of extra emotion at Fisher Stadium Saturday afternoon when Lafayette welcomes Bucknell in a Patriot League college football game at 12:30 p.m.
On Saturday morning, the Leopards football program will dedicate a locker in the Bourger Varsity Football House in honor of Chris LaPietra, who was the captain of the 1988 Lafayette Colonial League championship team. LaPietra died on June 14 at the age of 54 and a scholarship has been endowed in his name through the efforts of teammates and friends.
In addition to that ceremony, Lafayette will acknowledge the passing of the coach of that 1988 championship team, Bill Russo, who died in the past week at age 74.
Leopards coach John Garrett opened Tuesday’s weekly media luncheon with comments about Russo, who tried to recruit Garrett to Lafayette as a player in the 1980s. Garrett instead went to Columbia where his father was head coach and then transferred to Princeton.
“What a football coach he was,” Garrett said. “He had fantastic success. Prayers and condolences from me and the entire Lafayette football program to his family, his friends, and former players on the passing of a legend.”
Mike Joseph, the former Parkland High standout who is working games for RCN4 Cable and the Lafayette Sports Network, played for Russo and later coached with him for a decade.
“He was a football guy through and through,” Joseph said. “He was not only my coach and my mentor but a friend.”
Joseph said that coaching with Russo was different because he was a former player.
“The first five years on his staff was a little awkward, but the last five years we became as close as could be,” Joseph said. “We would eat dinners, we would travel together, we could play golf together. He came to be my friend. He truly went from being my coach to a great friend. He was just a terrific guy. Once you were inside his circle, you were there for life and he has as big a heart as anyone I’ve met.”
Russo went 103-98-4 in 19 seasons from 1981-99. He took over a program that went 2-7 in 1980 and in his first game in 1981, the Leopards rolled to a 51-0 win over Central Connecticut State. In fact, Lafayette won its first five games that year and finished 9-2.
“He was ahead of his time offensively,” Joseph said. “That first game, 51-0, people were like wow ‘We’re throwing the ball all over the place,’ and he came here from Brown where he worked with some great coaches who were intertwined with Joe Paterno because that’s where he started,” Joseph said.
Garrett said Russo also continually made the wise decision to bring in a quality running back with each recruiting class.
Four of the top six and six of the top 10 rushers in Lafayette history played for Russo, led by Bethlehem Catholic graduate Erik Marsh, who ran for 4,834 yards from 1991-94. Leonard Moore (3,419 yards from 1995-98), Tom Costello (2,936 yards from 1988-90), and Ryan Priest (2,597 yards from 1992-85) were all recruited by Russo or his associate head coach Frank Tavani, who would go one to succeed him as head coach and spent 16 seasons in charge of the Leopards.
Bison with a touch of Lehigh
Bucknell is (1-3) and looking for its second straight win over Lafayette in this calendar year after handing the Leopards their lone loss, 38-13, in the abbreviated spring schedule.
Former Lehigh player and assistant coach Dave Cecchini is 6-13 in his third season with the Bison.
His name is not the only one familiar to Lehigh University football fans.
Bucknell’s starting quarterback is sophomore Nick Semptimphelter, who is the son of Scott Semptimphelter. Scott Semptimphelter was a two-year starter for the Mountain Hawks at QB and threw for 3,449 yards and 30 touchdowns as a senior in 1993 when he led the program to its first Patriot League title in 1993. He was the league MVP and the MVP of the 1993 Lehigh-Lafayette game.
Young Semptimphelter has shared the position with two others and has completed 27 of 56 passes for 230 yards with two interceptions and a touchdown, which was caught by freshman Christian Spugnardi from Allentown Central Catholic in last week’s win over Cornell.
“This is a different team from the one we faced in the spring because a lot of those seniors have graduated,” Garrett said. “They’ve been playing two young kids at quarterback who don’t have a lot of experience and defensively, there are only a few returning starters as well.
“But they’re talented and it’s always a challenge against them because of their schemes. They have a variety of pressure packages on defense and make you account for a lot of different things. On offense [Cecchini] does a fantastic job of getting the ball into space. He’s done that his whole career.”
In the spring, Garrett remembered a lot of tipped passes led to turnovers that in turn led to a lopsided loss.
“If we play a clean game and execute consistently, we’ll have a real good chance,” Garrett said.
Leopards freshman quarterback Ah-Shaun Davis won his second straight Patriot League rookie of the week award after going 20 for 28 in the air for 354 yards and two TDs.
