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Kern: Quakers out to avenge last season's loss to Lehigh

PENN, the defending Ivy League co-champion, will finally begin its season Saturday afternoon at home against Lehigh. A year ago, the Quakers started 1-3 for first-year coach Ray Priore, their longtime assistant. They wouldn't lose again, which means what will mostly be remembered is beating Harvard and the title. But they did drop their first game, 41-20, at Lehigh. And that's hard for them to forget.

PENN, the defending Ivy League co-champion, will finally begin its season Saturday afternoon at home against Lehigh.

A year ago, the Quakers started 1-3 for first-year coach Ray Priore, their longtime assistant. They wouldn't lose again, which means what will mostly be remembered is beating Harvard and the title. But they did drop their first game, 41-20, at Lehigh. And that's hard for them to forget.

"They tattooed us pretty good," said Priore, whose team has been picked to finish second, just behind Harvard, in the preseason media poll. "We're looking to have a better start, a faster start. We all know that last year is last year. We have to turn to the next chapter. Hopefully we're ready to do that.

"When somebody hangs 40 on you, you take it personally. We were still trying to figure out as a staff what our kids could and couldn't do. You're going to see a lot of first-time mistakes. You think about teaching moments, but there's nothing like doing it."

Speaking of personal, the 0-2 Mountain Hawks (who nearly won at Villanova last week) are coached by Andy Coen, who was also an assistant at Penn back in the day. This will be Lehigh's first game at Penn since 2002.

And then there's senior left tackle Nick Demes, one of Penn's captains. One of his best friends back home in suburban Chicago is Lehigh nose guard Jimmy Mitchell. Not only will the two probably get to hit each other a few times, but the trash talk has been going on since last September. If you're Demes, maybe that's a little too long to have to take. Even if it's among buds. Or it could be that just makes things worse.

"He's talked me up a bit on last year's result," Demes, a three-year starter, said with a smile. "I'd be lying if I said part of (the motivation) wasn't trying to get back at him. As a team, we're just looking to play our best. I know that sounds cliché. If we were playing a team we beat last year, it would be the same preparation. But we recognize what happened."

So . . .

"I talked to (Mitchell) last weekend," he went on. "He's in the middle, I'm on the end. We made some contact last year. That's my brother, but I'm going to be getting after him on the field. Afterward, it'll be all good. Until then, it's all business.

"He's come down to Penn a couple of times, I've gone up there (Bethlehem). It's nice to have someone from home nearby. But I've had to listen for 12 months. It's obnoxious. My friends back home are telling me all about it. There's not much you can do until you get another shot. We're all pretty competitive."

Next week, the Quakers go to Fordham, which beat them on a last-second field goal after they'd rallied from a 25-point, second-quarter deficit. Then they open their Ivy League schedule at Dartmouth, which beat them by 21 here in 2015. So their first month could be filled with a bunch of payback. If it were only that easy. And playing teams that already have played two more games never helps.

"We try to play in the moment," Priore emphasized. "We try not to look too far ahead, in anything we do . . . Are they ready for that first kickoff, going full speed? Our scout guy doesn't run quite as fast (in practice) as a legit guy does. That to me is the biggest part of it. You always feel a little overmatched (in these situations), in terms of just game experience."

The Quakers are 2-7 their previous nine openers, although three losses were against ranked opponents.

"It's probably a first hit sort of thing," Demes said. "(Senior quarterback) Alek (Torgersen) always talks about how he needs that first hit, you know, to get his mind into the game. I think that's what it is for all of us. We're incredibly ready to hit somebody else.

"Obviously, the Ivy games have more weight, in terms of our end-of-season success. But we want to be at full speed going into that. Last year, it eventually all worked out for us. We don't want to wait."

@mikekerndn