ITHACA, N.Y. – It was a chilly and cloudy Friday night, but it could not have been any better for football. Penn came riding high into Ithaca at 4-0 and in contention for its first CSFL title since 1998. Unfortunately for the Quakers, the Big Red has been unbeatable at home recently, and defeated Penn, 23-20, to earn its seventh straight victory on Schoellkopf Field dating back to the 2006 season.

 

Clutch defense was the key to the Big Red's victory as Cornell had three interceptions, a forced fumble, 13 tackles for a loss and six sacks. John Parke seemed to be in on almost every play to lead the Big Red with 15 tackles and one sack. Clay Hemminger four sacks and 14 tackles and Matt Malleo added two interceptions. Penn was able to get only 164  total yards, including only 35 rushing yards on 38 carries.

 

On offense, Zak Dentes had his best game of the season, completing 23-off-34 passes for 286 yards to move up to second place on the all-time Cornell passing list. Dentes also threw two touchdowns and ran for one. Ryan Smith had a breakout game at running back, rushing for 53 yards and catching two touchdown passes. Josh Friedman again led the team in receiving for the second straight game with 78 yards.

 

On their first possession, the Quakers faced an early third-and-fifteen situation, but Penn's quarterback Mike D'Angelo was able to complete an 18 yard pass to Marten Basta. D'Angelo's next pass was complete for 34 yards, and Penn was quickly on the verge of scoring at the Cornell 11-yard line. Josh Macintosh was able to make a great play by breaking up a would-be touchdown pass on second down, but D'Angelo snuck the ball in for the touchdown to Clark Armatis on the next play. An extra point gave Penn early 7-0 lead.

 

The teams traded possessions until late in the first quarter when Hemminger recovered a D'Angelo fumble to give Cornell the ball on the Penn 33-yard line. Dentes showed the Big Red faithful his versatility as a quarterback by completing three passes in a row and rushing for a first down on a key fourth and inches at the Penn five-yard line. Dentes then ran up the middle again for the touchdown. Mitch Ottinger completed the extra point, and the game was tied at 7-7.

           

Penn was then struck by the turnover bug again on its next possession when Cornell's Ryan Jacob broke up a D'Angelo pass and Malleo snatched the ball out of the air for the interception at the Penn 38-yard line. The Quakers stifled the Big Red offense, but Ottinger connected on a 20-yard field goal attempt and gave the Big Red the 10-7 just minutes into the beginning of the second quarter.

           

Once again, the teams traded possession back-and-forth before Penn managed to pick off a Dentes pass at the seven minutes mark of the second quarter. The Cornell defense put up a solid effort, and facing second-and-10 on the Cornell 14-yard line, Hemminger sacked D'Angelo for a loss of 11 yards to push the Quakers back to the Cornell 25-yard line, but Rajam Dos Santos drilled a 42-yard field goal to tie the game again at 10-10.

           

Cornell opened the third quarter with an early fumble near midfield and Penn used six plays to get back into field goal range as Dos Santos connected from 45 yards out, to give Penn its last lead of the game, 13-10.

           

On the ensuing possession, the Big Red drove 59 yards down the field for the touchdown. Dentes went five-for-six on the drive for 36 yards. The posession ended with a perfect pass to a wide open Ryan Smith in the corner of the endzone for the touchdown. Ottinger again completed the extra point and Cornell led 17-13.

           

After forcing a quick three and out, the Big Red again drove down the field. The big play on the drive was another great pass by Dentes to Chris Lebarge through a seam in the middle for the 33-yard completion. Dentes then found Smith again wide open in the endzone, and Cornell led 23-13.

           

The Quakers did not give up though and on the next drive Penn used five plays to go 56 yards, culminating with D'Angelo rushing six yards and diving just inside the pylon as time expired in the third quarter to keep the game close. Dos Santos made the extra point to make it a 23-20 game going into the fourth quarter.

           

Despite no one scoring in the fourth quarter, it was an exciting one, as the Cornell defense stepped it up to preserve the victory. In the fourth quarter, the Cornell defense had two sacks, two interceptions, and held the Quakers to -13 yards of total offense.

 

Penn's first possession looked like Cornell could be in trouble, until Parke sacked D'Angelo on a third and six on the Cornell 43-yard line to drive the Quakers out of field goal range.

           

When Penn got the ball back, Evan Levy forced and recovered a fumble at the Cornell 39-yard line.

           

Again, Penn was not able to complete a drive on its third possession of the fourth quarter with 6:42 left. Hemminger made another huge sack on third down to make it fourth-and-ten. With time winding down, the Quakers attempted the fourth down conversion, but Malleo made a fantastic play to break up a pass and give possession back to Cornell.

           

The Big Red offense was unable to run out the clock, going three and out, to give the ball back to Penn with 2:08 remaining. This time, however, Malleo did more than just break up a pass as he intercepted D'Angelo's first attempt at the Cornell 46-yard line.

           

Penn managed to get one last effort with less than a half minute left, but the team was unsuccessful on two deep passes to end the game.

                       

Cornell travels to West Point next Friday to take on Army in the Big Red's final CSFL  conference game. Game time is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.