WORCESTER – The scoreboard tells the story of a blowout in Holy Cross’ season opener on Saturday at Fitton Field, but it’s a bit deceiving.

The Crusaders trailed by 21 after the first and never truly recovered despite certainly finding their footing, getting beaten by No. 11 Lehigh 35-10 in a key early Patriot League matchup.

Lehigh put up 398 yards of offense and Holy Cross had 391. The difference was a 3-0 turnover differential in favor of Lehigh, a 2-9 clip on third down for Holy Cross and just 78 yards rushing to the Mountain Hawks’ 281.

“The story for me is the turnovers were big and obviously, the red zone,” said head coach Dan Curran. “If you walk away with touchdowns instead of a field goal or nothing, it’s a different game. Give Lehigh credit. They didn’t really make many mistakes.”

As far as bad starts go, it couldn’t have gone much worse for the Crusaders, digging the 21-0 hole after 15 minutes.

Lehigh started with the ball and needed just four plays to move 79-yards. The dagger came in the form of a 65-yard touchdown run by QB Hayden Johnson one play after HC gave up a 3rd-and-8 on a draw play.

After an immediate three-and-out with transfer David Lynch at quarterback, the Mountain Hawks quickly made it 14-0 on a four-yard TD run by Luke Yoder. That came after the Crusaders gave up a 4th-&-1 and then a 39-yard bomb a play later.

Another three-and-out followed (six plays, nine yards on the first two offensive drives for the Crusaders) and a 33-yard touchdown run on 3rd-&-15 from Yoder made it 21-0.

“The red zone is such a big piece of the start and everything,” said Lynch, who finished with 313 yards on 25-40 passing. “That start on the first two drives, three-and-out can’t happen. Then, just trying to finish. I think that’s the biggest thing.

“We moved the ball, we had some flashes of great football and then some really bad football too, especially the start and the red zone.”

Holy Cross seemed to have some momentum rolling when they drove down inside the Lehigh 10-yard line early in the second, but a drop by Joesph Williams on 4th-and-2 resulted in a turnover on downs. The defense finally answered, forcing a quick three-and-out. The hosts ended up settling for a 26-yard field goal by Owen Saraceno with 7:15 left in the half.

Following another punt, Holy Cross was seemingly about to make it a game with Lynch taking the Crusaders down to the Lehigh seven-yard line after a deep ball and great leaping grab by Lincoln Fisher. But, coming out of the two-minute warning, third string QB Liam Zelman was brought in for a run and was immediately stripped at the four, with Lehigh recovering and running out the half.

“We wanted to have a package…he’s a guy that flashed a little bit during camp,” Curran explained. “Obviously, the plus-one in the run game…Lehigh does a really good job with their red zone defense. That plus-one run game can sometimes be the X factor.

“That’s something he’s worked on, really the last week and a half. He’s kind of been excelling in that role in preseason. So, we’re excited to get him in there. Obviously, the moment was kind of big for him as a young guy, but he’ll learn from that and grow. He’ll have another opportunity down the road to go out there and capitalize.”

Holy Cross punted almost immediately to open the second half and Lehigh put together a 10-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a 14-yard TD catch in the back of the end zone for Nick Palumbo, making it 28-3 with 7:20 left in the third.

Just 47 seconds into the fourth, Lynch capped a 14-play drive that began with 3:39 left in the previous frame, finding tight end Drae Tyme for a 14-yard TD to make it 28-10.

With a little over 10 minutes to go, a ball ricocheted off the chest of Ty Curran on a slant and directly into the arms of a waiting Lehigh defender. Two plays later, Yoder had his third rushing TD of the day from six yards out to push the lead to 35-10.

Holy Cross did continue to battle, driving down to the Lehigh 30 in the final six minutes, but Lynch forced a ball over the middle, handing Luke Denny an easy pick in what was ultimately a perfect encapsulation of the frustrating day for the purple and white.

Curran’s team can’t dwell on this one. There’s another Patriot League test right out of the gate next Saturday on the road against Colgate, who beat Fordham on Friday night.

“We feel like we have a good football team here,” added Curran.

“We’re excited to show that next week up at Colgate. Looking forward to making the corrections and getting better.”