The Ithaca Journal du lieu suivant : Ithaca, New York • 12

4B COLLEGE FOOTBALL Monday, November 16, 2009 THE ITHACA JOURNAL IVY LEAGUE COLUMBIA 30, CORNELL 20 Big Red closes with 7 straight losses Six interceptions spoil Cornell's finale enth straight. "It's got to be a killer. It's got to be a killer," said Cornell coach Jim Knowles, who did not make players available for comment after the game. "My heart goes out to them. I only wish I could have done more to bring them more wins but I know we've done everything we can for them in terms of establishing a family, establishing alumni who care." Columbia (3-6, 2-4 Ivy League) snapped a five-game losing streak of its own behind the running of quarter By Dan Sweeney dsweeney gannett.com Staff Writer ITHACA An inauspicious start preceded a disappointing ending for the Cornell football team's 16 seniors playing their final home game Saturday.

The Big Red fell behind by 13 points in the opening 55 seconds, then battled back and took a four-point lead but couldn't overcome six interceptions that helped Columbia to a 30-20 win. The loss was the Big Red's sev JUG CONTINUED FROM IB Cortland scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to make the hosts sweat, but Ithaca had an answer for both. Leading 16-12 with 637 left in the game, Ithaca pieced together a critical seven-play, 67-yard touchdown drive. A 37-yard catch-and-run from backup tight end Matt Crandall who broke two tackles along the left sideline set the Bombers up on Cortland's 10-yard line. A pair of 5-yard runs from Dan Rug-giero finished the drive off with 3:06 left.

The point-after kick made it 23-12. "You're caught in a rock and a hard place offensively," Ithaca coach Mike Welch, referring to the play called for Crandall. "You're not going to throw it very often, but if you are it's got to be a high Augie Williams' interception and 26-yard return was Ganter's fourth interception of the game and set up Olawale's game-clinching run. After Cornell (2-7, 1-5) spotted Columbia 13 quick points, senior running back Randy Barbour took a hand-off 55 yards for a touchdown just 71 seconds into the game. A little more than three minutes later, Ganter hit Bryan Walters on a fade route for a touchdown but Brad Green-way missed the extra point.

Greenway also missed a 27-yard field goal with 3:23 left in the first half. He missed three field goals last week against Dartmouth and two "I think that unfortunately, our defense probably underplay ed all year," Conti said. "I think the last two weeks are really a sign of how we can play. It's unfortunate.but I'm really happy that the seniors get to go out on top, and it's a lot of momentum for us to roll over with to next year The Bombers opted not to apply for an ECAC bowl bid. Alfred wrapped up the Empire 8 Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs Saturday with a 56-30 victory over Utica.

Welch believes Ithaca's strong finish will carry over to 2010. "It's a testament to the character of our players," he said. "Never quit Continue to work hard regardless if things go your way or don't go your way. That's really a sign of a quality team when things are down. What are you going to do? These guys worked hard, got back and had two really good victories." after the Dragons had cut the deficit to 16-12.

That blocked PAT played a role in the play-call. Finally.lateinthe fourth, Cortland scored a TD to make it 23-20. Ithaca's Dan Higgins recovered the on-side kick. Cortland forced a three-and-out with two minutes remaining, and Rogowski's punt was downed at the 6-yard line following a great hustle play by Cpnti. With the ball set to bounce into the endzone, Conti punched it to Adam Lajara at the last second.

"Guys take pride in it," said Ithaca coach Mike Welch, who thought special teams cost his team a critical game Oct. 31 at Springfield. "Something we work at, but they take a lot of pride in it. It's nice to see it work out. This year's been kind of a funny year.

We really haven't had that explosiveness that we usually have in our special teams. We missed it." and-10 for a touchdown with 1:51 left in the game. Olawale's clinching touchdown run loomed larger because Columbia has struggled in the kicking game all season. The Lions' Greg Gut-tas missed an extra point, and was promptly replaced by Drew Perfetti, who made his first career field goal to break 13-all tie. "We blocked it up," Columbia coach Norries Wilson.

"We even switched up who the lead blocker was going to be. Had we not gotten the first down we were going to kick the field goal just so they were going to have score a touchdown to beat us or tie us." Brian Grastorf at the Ithaca 26-yard line, only to fumble the ball away on the return. Cortland's defense recovered quickly to force a punt, but return man Justin Autera botched the catch and fumbled it away. Cline recovered. Those miscues helped Ithaca build a 10-0 lead.

"The first half, you can't make that many mistakes and relinquish that kind of field position, because we never played in our half of the field enough to generate any kind points," MacNeill said. For the second straight week, sophomore middle linebacker Ryan Clarke made team-high 16 tackles. Ithaca was stout against the run, allowing 3.8 yards per carry. The performance followed up an outstanding showing against Alfred on Nov. 7, when the Bombers held the 14th-ranked Saxons to 10 points in 31-10 victory.

In doing so, Ithaca (7-3) ensured a 39th straight winning season. ITHACA CONTINUED FROM IB Dan Ruffrage's 48-yard punt return in the second quarter set up Rogowski's first field goal, which gave the Bombers a 10-0 lead. Cortland answered with a touchdown to make it 10-6, but the extra-point attempt was blocked by 6-foot-5 lineman Adam Drescher. Cortland picked up the loose ball and tried to throw an impromptu two-point conversion, but Eric Toporoff batted it down. Cortland was chasing that point the rest of the day.

"It put us in a bad situation," Cortland coach Dan MacNeill said. A 25-yard punt return by Ruffrage in the third quarter set the table for Rogowski's third field goal, and a 16-6 Ithaca lead. Ithaca denied Cortland atwo-point conversion pass back M. A. Olawale, who didn't enter the game until the Lions' second second-half possession.

He missed the previous two games with an injured shoulder, yet managed to deliver the decisive blows. Following one of Ben Gan-ter's five interceptions, Olawale dove over the line for a 1-yard touchdown to put the Lions back in front, 23-20, with 1:03 left in the third quarter. Olawale then ensured there wouldn't be another Cornell comeback by running 19 yards on third- to them. They're the ones that created some of those big plays that put us in those adverse situations." Ithaca sophomore Andrew Rogowski broke the program record for field goals in a season with 12, after connecting from 23, 32 and 39 yards. He also booted two punts over 50 yards.

An announced sellout of 9,700 watched both teams' defenses dictate the action. Ruggiero had a career-high 35 carries for 109 yards, trading niinimal gains in exchange for large chunks of clock. Ithaca scored on the game's first possession, going 72 yards on 10 plays. Ruggiero capped the drive with a 1-yard dive. Cortland committed three turnovers over the next 1037.

Mike Conti picked off Smith on the Dragons' first series, and the killer came two series' later. Cortland linebacker Will Schroeder picked offlC's rn VISA! 02 DIRECTV. SATELLITE TELEVISION Skatinq i a to of a a Columbia Cornell 16 13 77-M 7 M-M First Quarter Col: Kourouma 80 run (kick failed), 14:50. Col: Bracket! 4 run (Perfetti kick), 14:05. Cor Barbour 55 run (Greenway kick), 13:49.

Con Walters 12 pass from Ganter (kick failed), 10:30. Col: FG Perfetti 33, 4:08. Second Quarter Con Walters 32 pass from Ganter (Greenway kick), 12:23. Third Quarter Col: Olawale 1 run (Perfetti kick), 1:27. Fourth Quarter Col: Olawale 19 run (Perfetti kick), 1:51.

4,593. Col 19 44-260 127 17-24-1 104 4-2 Cor 21 40-179 201 14-38-6 49 0-0 First downs Rushes-yards Passing Comp-Att-Int Return Yards Punts-Avg. Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards 6-52 10-90 Time of Possession 31:21 28:39 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING: Columbia, Kourouma 11-105. Olawale 11-95, Brackett 14-35, Ivery 6-26, Knowlin 1-1, Team Hminus 2). Cornell, Barbour 16-120, Liuzza 9-39, Ganter 12-14, Mlady 3-6.

PASSING: Columbia, Brackett 8-13-0-59, Olawale 9-11-1-68. Cornell, Ganter 11-32-5-144, Liuzza 2-5-1-20, Savage 1-1-0-37. RECEIVING: Columbia, Knowlin 5-17, Stephens 3-46, Joseph 3-43, Gutierrez 3-(minus 5), Kennedy 2-22, Jancisin 1-4. Cornell, Walters 6-89, Savage 5-48, Blackman 2-46, Tretter 1-18. BIG EAST CONFERENCE LOUISVILLE 10, SYRACUSE 9 Syracuse 9Louisville 0 36-0 0 37-10 Third Quarter Syr FG Lichtenstein 42, 8:51.

Lou: FG Philpott 31, 3:54. Fourth Quarter Syn D.Carter 3 run (run failed), 12:58. Lou: Chichester 15 pass from Froman (Philpott kick), 1:24. 33,223. Syr 18 47-156 110 14-21-1 29 2-1 Lou 11 35-34 117 9-18-1 44 0-0 First downs Rushes-yards Passing Comp-Att-Int Return Yards Punts-Avg.

Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards 9-65 4-33 Time of Possession 34:13 25:47 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING: Syracuse, D.Carter 28-129, A.Bailey 10-38, M.Jones 1-7, Nassib 1-4, Davis 1-0, Paulus 6-(minus 22). Louisville, Ashley 14-46, Beaumont 1-4, Tronzo 1-2, Froman lHminus 1), Caldwell Hminus 2), Anderson 3-(minus 7), Team 4-(minus 8). PASSING: Syracuse, Paulus 12-16-1-89, Nassib 2-5-0-21. Louisville, Froman 9-18-1-117. RECEIVING: Syracuse, A.Bailey 4-36, Lemon 2-23, A.Collier 2-12, Cutler 2-4, M.Jones 2-2, Owen 1-18, D.Carter 1-15.

Louisville, Chichester 3-44, Long 2-15, Guy 1-36, Beaumont 1-13, Ashley 1-8, Anderson 1-1. NON-LEAGUE ITHACA 23, SUNY CORTLAND 20 Saturday's result Cortland Ithaca 6 0 14 7 6 3 7 First quarter IC: Dan Ruggiero 1 run (Andrew Rogowski kick), 10:25. Second quarter IC: Rogowski 23 FG, 8:45. Wayne Wheeler 22 pass from Alex Smith (kick blocked). 4:28.

IC: Rogowski 32 FG, 00:26. Third quarter IC: Rogowski 39 FG, 3:17. Fourth quarter Wheeler 25 pass from Smith (pass failed), 6:37. IC: Ruggiero 5 run (Rogowski kick), 3:06. Eric Hajnos 2 pass from Smith (Hajnos pass from Smith), 2:18.

Art: 9,700. ICFirst downs 17 14Rushes-yards26-100 yards 208 158Total yards 308 268Fumbles-lost3-2 1- OPenalties-yards 4-48 7-60Punts-avg. 31:47 INDIVIDUALS Rushing: Cortland, Dom Sair 15-64, Anthony Giuliano 5-23, Alex Smith 2-8, Justin Autera 1-3, Bill Smith 2-2, Tom Lewis 1-0. Ithaca, Dan Ruggiero 35-109, Brian Grastorf 3-3. Passing: Cortland.

A. Smith 18-29-2, 208 yards, 3 TDs. Ithaca, Grastorf 12-27-1. 158 yards. Receiving: Cortland, Eric Hajnos 7-86, Wayne Wheeler 4-54, Anthony Giuliano 4-49, Brian Haber 1-10, Tom Lewis 1-5, Sair 1-4.

Ithaca, Thomas Vossler 6-79, Matt Hannon 2-17, Matt Crandall 1-37, Joseph Ingrao 1-12, Dan Ruffrage 1-9, Joe Nicoletti 1-4. DIVISION III PLAYOFFS Saturday's first round Washington Jefferson (9-1) at Mount Union (10-0), Noon Maine Maritime (9-1) at Montclair State (9-1), Noon Albright (9-1) at Alfred (8-1), Noon Susquehanna (8-2) at Delaware Valley (9-1), Noon North Carolina Wesleyan (8-2) at Wesley (10-0). Noon Johns Hopkins (8-2) at Hampden-Syd-ney (10-0). Noon DePauw (7-2) at Thomas More (10-0), Noon Trine (9-1) at Case Western Reserve (10-0), Noon Mount St. Joseph (9-1) at Wittenberg (10-0), Noon Wabash (9-1) at Illinois Wesleyan (9-1), 1 p.m.

Mississippi College (8-2) at Huntingdon (8-2), 1 p.m. Lakeland (6-4) at Wisconsin-Whitewater (10-0), 1 p.m. Coe (9-1) at St. John's, Minn. (10-0), 1 p.m.

St. Thomas (9-1) at Monmouth, III. (10-0), 1 p.m. Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-1) at Central, Iowa (10-0), 1 p.m. Cal Lutheran (8-1) at Linfield (10-0), 3 p.m.

percentage one. But I thought that was a big play." Especially when the Dragons scored less than a minute later. A 48-yard kickoff return, followed by a 36-yard pass from Alex Smith to Eric Ha-jnos, put Cortland at the Ithaca 4. Two plays later, Smith found Hajnos on the right side for a 2-yard touchdown with 2:18 left. Gulp.

Cortland quickly burned its remaining two timeouts, forcing an Ithaca punt, but the punt was downed at the Dragons' 6. Two plays later, Cline picked off an overthrown pass to seal it. "That was a tremendous football game," Cortland coach Dan MacNeill said. "I think we were our own worst enemy to a certain degree, and I think you probably say that any time you lose a game, but you've got to give credit Public rOOVisaprep wnen yuut Olfer ends 12312009 New customers only With activation of the CHOICE package 01 higher Customer must enroll in Auto Bill Pay program at the time ot purchase. Condiiioos apply Receipt of DIRECtVpiogiammingsubiedtoDIRECTVCustomeiAgreementiCopy provided at diiecty comlegal and in (irst hill.

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