ITHACA, N.Y. --
Jeff Mathews hung his head as he was walking off the field with just over a minute to play. The greatest passing quarterback in Ivy League history by any measure had just thrown an interception that was returned for an apparent game-tying Penn touchdown with 71 seconds left on the clock in his final collegiate game. Then sophomore
Luke Hagy ran over to him.
"He told me I was looking at it all wrong, and that we still had 1:11 left to go win it," Mathews said.
Tre' Minor had other plans - he just wanted to let the offense take a knee and go home.
The senior broke through the middle of the line and blocked the extra-point attempt to give Cornell a 42-41 victory on Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field. The win ends the Big Red's season with a 3-7 record and a two-game streak to end the year and completed a sweep of the Big Red's trophy series with a Trustees' Cup triumph.
Minor, who also had two tackles for loss, added his first career interception in the win. He was just one of many Big Red defenders flying all around the field in a game that on the surface seemed to have been decided by offense, and for good reason.
Mathews was again unbelievable in his final collegiate game, completing 33-of-47 passes for 467 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another. He closed out his career with 45 Cornell and 18 Ivy League records to his name. Mathews' 467 passing yards ranks seventh in school history for a single game - the senior holds six of those spots. During the game, he also became the 20th player in FCS history to surpass 11,000 passing yards. The Ivy League's career passing leader ended his career with 901-of-1447 for 11,284 yards and 72 touchdowns in the air.
Three of his wide receivers surpassed 100 yards, with senior
Grant Gellatly catching 11 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown to lead the way. He ended his season with 90 catches for 1,226 yards, good for single season school marks for receptions and receiving yards. His career numbers of 194 receptions for 2,486 yards both rank second all-time at Cornell. Gellatly's 15 career touchdown catches is tied for third in Big Red history.
Lucas Shapiro added 10 catches for 164 yards and a touchdown and
Luke Hagy had 10 catches for 114 yards and two scores, making them the first receiving trio to go over 100 yards in the same game since Gellatly,
Kurt Ondash and
Shane Savage each hit the mark on Franklin Field in 2011.
Those who took in the game saw the Big Red defense and special teams make big play after big play all day long against the defending Ivy League champions on their Senior Day, sending Penn to just its second losing season in 22 years under head coach Al Bagnoli.
Brett Buehler had six tackles to surpass 100 for the season, ending with 104. Freshman
Miles Norris had six stops and blocked a punt to go along with his 2.5 tackles for loss. Cornell had nine total tackles for loss and blocked two kicks, including the game-tying PAT attempt. The visitors also cleanly covered up both on-side attempts by the Quakers in the final three minutes. The Cornell defense limited Penn to 340 total yards and just 79 yards on the ground on 28 carries.
The wild fourth quarter saw the teams combine for 34 points and nearly had the home team rally from a three-touchdown deficit with 7:45 to play and a 14-point hole with less than three minutes left.
Penn led 14-0 after the first quarter and 21-7 midway through the second before Cornell began a furious rally. The Big Red got on the board when Gellatly hauled in a 25-yard pass from Mathews to get back within a score, then after Penn extended it back to 14, Mathews found Shapiro from 4 yards out to make it 21-14 at the half.
That began a 35-point run by Cornell that included a dominant third quarter and the first half of the fourth, as the visitors tied it on a 19-yard pass from Mathews to Hagy six minutes into the second half and then took the lead with under a minute to play in the third. After a defensive stop, freshman
Miles Norris blocked a punt and junior
Ahmad Avery caught it in the end zone for a touchdown to give Cornell its first lead of the day.
The Big Red wasn't done, as Mathews barreled in from a yard away with 10:22 left in the fourth, followed by Mathews hitting Hagy from 8-yards out with 7:47 remaining after earning a short field drive after the defense had a three-and-out and
Ben Rogers returned a punt 22 yards to the Penn 35. The previous touchdown to make it 35-21 was on a drive extended by a bobbled snap to punter
Chris Fraser, who was able to artfully hit a wide-open
Jackson Weber for a 21-yard gain on a fourth-and-4 to pick up a first down. On the next play, Mathews hit Gellatly with a strike down to the 1, and Mathews went over the goal-line on the next play on a sneak.
Then Penn took the momentum right back. Trailing 42-21, The Quakers got a spark from Alek Torgersen who completed consecutive passes to Conner Scott for 12 yards and then C Countryman for 45 yards and a touchdown to make it 42-28.
After the Big Red offense was forced to punt, Penn went back to work. A nine-play, 75-yard drive that took under two minutes put the home team back on the board at 42-35, with Torgersen hitting Ty Taylor from 25 yards out for the score.
With under three minutes left, Cornell took possession trying to run out the clock. After a loss on first down and a short gain on second down, the Big Red faced a third-and-18. The Quakers sniffed out the screen pass and Mathews was hit as he threw - right into the awaiting hands of Charzynski. The big defensive end rumbled 39 yards for a touchdown with 1:11 to play and it looked as though the game may have been heading into overtime.
Then
Tre' Minor happened. The senior linebacker with two blocked kicks entering the game broke through the middle of the line and got a third on the final play of his collegiate career to keep Cornell in the lead. All that was left was recovering an on-sides kick, which the Big Red did before taking two knees and celebrating the victory.
"This was a great team win, and I'm so proud of our seniors," Cornell head coach David Archer said. "They led us all year in the right direction, and to see these last two games play out the way they did, they deserve it. They put us in the right direction, and I'll be eternally grateful for all they have done for Cornell football."
