ITHACA, N.Y. -- With a Homecoming crowd behind them and a defense that made big plays early and often, the Big Red football team snapped a 10-game losing skid to Central New York rival Colgate with a decisive 38-14 victory on Saturday afternoon at Schoelkopf Field. The win improved the Big Red's record to 2-3 overall, while the Raiders fell to 2-4. The win was the first by Cornell over Colgate since 1992.

The Big Red defense limited the Raiders to 191 yards as Cornell built a 31-8 lead before Colgate picked up 160 yards as the home team dropped back into a prevent defense for the final four possessions. Cornell held sophomore Jordan Scott to 42 yards on 17 carries, but he did score two short touchdowns. Both Colin Nash and Graham Rihn intercepted passes, the latter on a tipped pass by Matt Darby, and senior Matt Grant recovered a fumble, all coming in the first 18 minutes of play. Ryan Blessing had a team-high nine tackles, including a sack, while Tim Bax had six stops, forced a fumble, had a six-yard tackle for loss and broke up two passes in the victory.

Sophomore quarterback Nathan Ford threw for a pair of touchdowns and ran for two more, while junior running back Luke Siwula pounded out 145 yards on 29 carries and scored a touchdown rushing and receiving. He ran for 100 yards after the break. Sophomore wide receiver Jesse Baker had another big day catching the football, making four grabs for 80 yards and scoring his first collegiate touchdown.

Ford threw touchdown passes of 24 and 37 yards in the first half as the Big Red took a 24-8 lead into the break. He added a 5-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and capped off the day with a 1-yard plunge in the third quarter. Ford finished the day 9-for-17 for 144 yards with his two scores and added 38 yards on the ground to go along with his two touchdowns. The Big Red offense piled up 220 yards on the ground despite a 37-yard loss on a bad snap early in the first quarter.

For Colgate, Mike Saraceno was 15-of-28 passing for 219 yards and was picked off twice. He gained 84 yards on the ground, helped out by a 55-yard jaunt on the final play of the first quarter. Defensively, Mike Gallihugh had 19 tackles, including 11 solo stops, to pace the defense.

Colgate took the ball on the opening kickoff and after picking up a first down, was forced to punt. An 18-yard completion from Ford to Canty and an 8-yard run by Shane Kilcoyne put the home team on the move, but a 37-yard loss after a bad snap pushed the Big Red back from the Colgate 43 to the Cornell 18-yard line. Two plays later the Big Red was forced to punt, and sophomore Nick Maxwell boomed a 51-yard kick to push the visitors back inside their own 20. On the first play of the drive, Saraceno's pass was completed to David Morgan, who was separated from the ball by Bax. Matt Grant fell on the ball at the 33-yard line. The Big Red took full advantage of the short field, and on third-and-1, Ford rolled right, only to look back to his left and find Siwula for a 24-yard touchdown. Zell's kick made it 7-0.

After the next Colgate possession ended on Rihn's first career interception that Darby deflected, Cornell took over at the Colgate 32-yard line. The Big Red then went to the ground, as four straight runs ended when Ford found the end zone from 5-yards out to make it 14-0 after the Zell kick.

The Raiders cut the deficit to 14-8 on its next possession when Scott dove into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Saraceno ran in the two-point conversion.

After punting the ball away on its next possession, Cornell got it right back early in the second quarter when Nash intercepted a pass for the third straight week, giving the Big Red the ball at the Cornell 47. A solid nine-play, 53-yard drive ended in a Ford 37-yard score to Baker to go up 21-8. The teams traded punts until the Big Red took back over with 2:22 left and turned 31 yards of Ford-to-Baker passing and 15 yards of Siwula rushing into a 24-yard field goal by Peter Zell, his ninth of the season.

The running game took over for the Big Red after the break by posting 166 yards on the ground to control the clock. Siwula ran for 100 yards on 17 carries, including nine straight carries during the second possession of the third quarter. Siwula's heavy lifting to the tune of 56 yards on that drive was finished off by a 1-yard dive by Ford to go up 31-8 with 6:39 to play in the third.

Both teams would score touchdowns in the fourth, with Scott finding the end zone from 4-yards out with 7:56 to play and the Raiders misfiring on the two-point conversion, followed by a two-play, 73-yard drive to answer that score. On the first play, Kilcoyne took a reverse and went 53 yards to the Colgate 20, then watched as Siwula ran 20 yards to the end zone to cap the scoring. Zell's kick made it 38-14, and both teams went to reserves late in the contest over the final six minutes.

Cornell is next at Brown on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m.