GAME #6: Cornell at Army
GAMETIME: Friday, Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m.
SITE: Michie Stadium (West Point, N.Y.)
2008 RECORDS: Cornell (3-2, 2-1 CSFL); Army (2-3, 1-1 CSFL)
SERIES RECORD: Army leads, 52-16
LAST MEETING: Cornell defeated Army, 14-7, at Schoelkopf Field on Oct. 26, 2007
LIVE STATS: None
THE HEAD COACH: Coach Terry Cullen's record moved to 147-122-7 (.546) after a victory over Princeton last weekend. Cullen has been a member of the coaching staff since 1964 and officially became the Terry Cullen Head Coach of Sprint Football in 2001.
THE CO-HEAD COACH: In August, 2008, it was announced that Bart Guccia would assume a majority of the on-field coaching and gameday decisions for the Big Red. Guccia is in his fourth year with the sprint football team and has posted a 3-2 record (.600) in his new role.
THE MATCH UP: Cornell, coming off a big win last Friday over Penn, is back on the road to take on Army at West Point on Friday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. Army holds the series advantage with a record of 52-16 against the Big Red, but Cornell is coming off its biggest victory of the season while Army has not played for two weeks. Cornell beat the Black Knights in their matchup last season, 14-7 at home on Oct. 26, 2007.
SCOUTING THE BLACK KNIGHTS:The Army offense lives and dies by the pass. The quarterback duo of Bobby Miner and Abe Payne will continue to lead the pass-heavy Army offense. The quarterbacks have combined for 1,454 yards passing and nine touchdowns through five games. Miner is second in the league in passing with 720 yards while Payne is third with 698 yards. The Black Knights have one of the best receiving corps in all of the CSFL. The team is led by senior wide receiver Geoffrey Phillips. Phillips has been a recipient of five CSFL Player of the Week honors, including three offensive honors and two special teams honors. Defensive backs all over the league have had trouble defending Phillips, who leads the CSFL by a wide margin in receptions (38) and reception yards (597). Sharing receptions is Joshua Scott, who is third in the league with 24 receptions and second with 339 yards. Ricky Lentz has also been a major force on offense. Lentz is fourth in the CSFL with 22 receptions and third in the league with 205 rushing yards. On defense, watch out for linebacker Bryan Girouard, who leads the CSFL with 45 tackles. Defensive back Antonio Manzano could provide trouble for Big Red wide receivers.
LAST TIME VS. ARMY: Trailing late in the contest, the Black Knights almost made a comeback to keep their CSFL title hopes alive, but Cornell held on to win a gritty 14-7 victory. Midway through the first quarter, Zak Dentes put the Big Red on the board with a 12-yard pass to Jack Rossman. Mitch Ottinger added the extra point to give Cornell a 7-0 advantage and that's how the score remained until the intermission. On Cornell's second possession of the second half, Dentes handed the ball off to Matt Malleo, who proceeded to throw it down the field to an open Chris LaBerge for the touchdown. Another Ottinger extra point gave Cornell a 14-0 lead. The Black Knights closed within seven after Abe Payne threw the ball into the corner of the endzone only to be caught by an Army receiver to make it a 14-7 lead. With just a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Big Red had possession of the ball deep in its own territory. Unfortunately, the Army defense prevented Cornell from running out the clock and Army got the ball back with 43 seconds on its own 35-yard line. Army proceeded to march down the field and with seven seconds left, and the ball on midfield, Payne lofted a Hail Mary pass into the air. A Cornell defensive back got his hand on it, but still it landed in Army's Jamie Antonides' hands. Antonides ran down the field with the endzone in his sight but Malleo chased him down and tackled the receiver at the 15-yard line to save the game, and give the Big Red a 14-7 victory.
THE BLACK KNIGHTS' LAST GAME: The Black Knights have not played since a 20-13 loss to Penn on Oct. 10. Penn jumped out to a 20-0 lead, which was held until mid-way through the fourth quarter when Army finally got on the board. Quarterback Abe Payne completed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Tim Clark to cap off a 91-yard drive. After forcing Penn to go three and out, Army recovered the ball again and scored another touchdown, to make it a 20-13 game with 2:37 remaining. The Black Knights recovered the onside kick and moved the ball quickly inside the Penn 10-yard line. Unfortunately for Army, they were unable to convert the touchdown and the game ended as a 20-13 loss. The Black Knights were able to amass 437 yards in the game. Payne had 329 yards and two touchdowns passing, while Geoffrey Phillips' 268 reception yards were enough to earn him CSFL Offensive Player of the Week. Phillips ended the game with 348 all-purpose yards.
CORNELL'S LAST GAME: The Big Red ended Penn's hope at an undefeated season as Cornell defeated the Quakers, 23-20, last Friday evening at Schoelkopf Field. The two teams went back and forth, exchanging leads four times in the contest. Penn jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on its first drive, but Cornell was able to score points off a Penn turnover to tie the game. Both schools exchanged field goals for a 10-10 tied going into halftime. After falling down by a field goal early in the second half, Zak Dentes led the charge down the field for the touchdown. Cornell would not lose the lead and Cornell would go on to win 23-20. The Big Red defense was clutch. On five possessions in the fourth quarter, Penn amounted -13 yards of total offense, and the Big Red had two third down sacks and two interceptions. Dentes had his best game of the 2008 season, passing for 286 yards on 23-of-34 passing. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Meanwhile, linebackers Clay Hemminger and John Parke were the stars on defense. Hemminger had a team-high 4 sacks while Parke led the Big Red with 15 tackles.
RECORD WATCH: Zak Dentes' 286 yards against Penn last weekend were enough to give him 2,381 for his career, an amount that puts him into second place on the all-time Cornell passing list. Dentes only needs 93 yards through the air to move him past Dave Zittel '88 for the most career passing yards by a Big Red quarterback. Meanwhile, Michael Brennan had three receptions for 37 reception yards against Princeton on Oct. 10, which gives him 1,019 in his career. He is only the third Cornell wide receiver with more than 1,000 career passing yards. He just needs five more yards to move him into second place on the Big Red list.
MORE RECORDS: Clay Hemminger's four sacks against Penn give him nine for his career. He is the first Big Red player to record four sacks in a game since Matt Collins '07 sacked four in 2005.
HOME DOMINANCE: Schoelkopf may have a new surface on it for this season, but the results for the sprint football team are the same. The victory this past weekend over Penn was Cornell's seventh straight home victory. The streak, which started back in 2006, is the longest in school history. The previous record of six straight has happened four times in Cornell history, most recently in 1990-1991.
PAINT THE BLACK DOOR RED: The tides may have turned in the Army-Cornell series. The Big Red has defeated the Black Knights two straight years, giving Cornell its first back-to-back victories over Army since 1987, when Army lost twice to Cornell that season. The last time Cornell defeated Army before starting its most recent streak was Sept. 26, 1992 with 18 losses in between.
TITLE CLINCHER?: A victory over Army could give the Big Red a share of the CSFL title. Cornell would need to defeat the Black Knights and watch the crucial Penn/Navy game later in the evening. If Penn defeats Navy, Cornell would be tied with Penn and Navy atop the CSFL standings with a CSFL record of 3-1.
UP NEXT: Cornell ends its 2008 season and celebrates Senior Night in a non-conference game against Mansfield University of Pennsylvania on Friday, Oct. 31 at Schoellkopf Field at 7:00 p.m.
