Penn prepares for Lehigh super receiver Braswell

Deron Braswell of Lehigh is the first of three top wide receivers Penn will face in the next six games. When the Penn football team faces Lehigh Saturday, the squad will have to try to avoid reliving the past. Unfortunately, the game against Lehigh might just bring back memories of losing a lead in the second half, very much at the hands of Lehigh's Deron Braswell. The Engineers' season has been nothing spectacular thus far. The strategy has been simple, and the results have been equally as easy to read. "Our philosophy is to mix up the up the offense," Lehigh coach Kevin Higgins said. "We can't be successful unless we combine the two parts of our offense." However, at this point in the season, the Engineers haven't been able to run the ball as effectively as they would like. Generally, the offense tries to control the ball and the clock with a lead. But Lehigh (1-3) has been playing catch up all too much. Their answer has been simple: Deron Braswell. Behind in games and trying to put points on the board, Lehigh has turned to Braswell, just as they did last year at Franklin Field. "Deron has an outstanding work ethic and he is a tremendous competitor," Higgins said. "Even though he is only a junior he has showed leadership ability." Braswell had been virtually unstoppable against his opponents so far. He has had 100-yard passing games in three of the first four Lehigh contests this season. He has also averaged nearly seven receptions a game. The Quakers had to learn about Braswell's prowess the hard way. In last year's game, Braswell took over and sent them back to the locker room shaking their heads. After jumping out to an early lead, the Quakers were victimized by Braswell heroics, to the tune of seven catches and 131 yards. The exclamation point was put on the game by the third-quarter touchdown catch that brought Lehigh back to a 28-21 lead, and put the Quakers down for good. "He is probably the best receiver we'll face all year, at least one of the best," Penn senior safety John Bishop said. "He's got good speed and just has a great nose for the ball. If the ball is in the air, he just goes up and gets it." The Quakers go into the game in a difficult position. The offense would like to get out of the shoot and build on the strong performance against Towson last week. However, getting up means letting Braswell try and beat you -- and facing the same predicament as last year. Though crucial for a win, shutting down Braswell doesn't seems to be weighing to heavily on the minds of the Penn defensive unit. The No. 1 task is to shut down the Lehigh offensive side of the ball, Braswell or otherwise. "Every week we put a focus on just knowing where the other teams No. 1 receiver is," Bishop said. "Every time he comes out and lines up for a play we are going to know where he is." The Quakers are well aware that the Engineers haven't had the luxury of a using a running game as much as they'd like. However, if it takes getting ahead to make Braswell do the damage, the secondary is ready to live up to the challenge. "They've got two very good running backs," Bishop said. "In the films we've seen they've been behind early and have had to throw the ball." Higgins doesn't have specific intentions of trying to repeat last year's events. "We know Penn is going to be keyed up against Braswell," Higgins said. "Sometimes he's spotlighted and sometimes he's highlighted, but we know he is not a one-man operation." The Quakers would like to be reminded of that, too, instead of the one-man highlight reel he put together last year. More importantly, Braswell is the first of three stellar receivers Penn will face in 1997. The other two are Brown's Sean Morey and Cornell's Eric Krawczyk. Morey leads all Ivy players in all-purpose yards, scoring and catches in 1997. Krawczyk leads all Ivy wide-outs in receptions thus far. The plan makes sense, but all one can think about is a lofty 21-yard pass into the right corner of the end zone being cradled by one Deron Braswell. The strike that cost the Quakers the game last year may not come again, but the Quakers are willing to test the Lehigh offense and make the No. 1 guy beat them again.

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