ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red's season comes to its conclusion Friday night with a non-conference game against Mansfield University. Cornell and Mansfield met once earlier this season, but this time the teams are fighting for a fourth-place finish in the league.

GAME INFORMATION
GAME #7: Cornell vs. Mansfield
GAME TIME: Friday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m.
GAME SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 7-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 37-23 on Sept. 17
2011 RECORDS: Cornell (2-4, 2-4 CSFL); Mansfield (2-4, 2-4)
LIVE STATS: sidearmstats.com/cornell/football
LIVE VIDEO: cornellbigred.com/showcase

THE HEAD COACH
Coach Terry Cullen is now in his 46th season at the helm of the Big Red program with a 162-127-7 record (.559). 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, Cornell announced that Bart Guccia would assume a majority of the on-field coaching and gameday decisions for the Big Red. Guccia is now in his sixth year with the team and has posted a 15-11 record (.577) in his new role.

ABOUT MANSFIELD
The Mounties, based in Mansfield, Pa., are currently in a three-way tie for fourth place in the league with Cornell and Post. Mansfield, in only its third year in the CSFL, has won two games in each of its first two years and will be looking for a program-high third win on Friday. The Mounties' two wins this year have come against winless Princeton and newcomer Post by a combined 74-2, and the team is coming off a 34-0 shutout of the Eagles last week.
The Mounties are coached by Dan Davis, who has been at Mansfield since the program began.

THE SERIES WITH MANSFIELD
Cornell and Mansfield have competed seven times in the Mounties' brief history, playing two games per year since Mansfield's inception in 2008. During that time, Cornell has won all seven previous encounters, though the Mounties are showing signs of great improvement this year. In Cornell's 37-23 win in the first week of this season, Mansfield held a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 23-20 advantage after three quarters before the Big Red scored the final 17 points of the game all in the fourth quarter.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTIES
Mansfield has outscored opponents in its two wins by a 74-2 margin, but in their four losses, the Mounties have been outscored 162-63. Mansfield has a balanced rushing and passing attack, gaining 844 yards on the ground and 767 through the air.
The Mounties have three running backs who have rushed for over 100 yards this season: Josh  Harrison (328 yards), quarterback Mike Maniscalo (176) and Dylan Flynn (116). Harrison is the league's third-leading rusher, while Maniscalo has completed 52.7 percent of his passes for 587 yards in 2011 with five touchdowns.  Maniscalo is also interception prone, however, as his 11 picks more than double his touchdowns. Receivers Pat Mackewicz and Sean Green have each caught three touchdowns and more than 200 yards worth of passes.
On defense, linebacker Jake Myers has more tackles (61) than all but one player in the CSFL this season. Six of his tackles are for a loss, and he also has one interception. Cornerback Troy Taylor has a league-leading four interceptions this season, and defensive end Paul Houseknecht has an impressive seven sacks.

CLOSING STRONG Cornell has won its last five season finales, with its last loss coming to Army in 2005. The last three seasons' worth of finale victories have come against Mansfield.

A WIN OVER THE MOUNTIES WOULD…
give Cornell a three-win season for the seventh consecutive year…put the Big Red into at least a tie for fourth place at the end of the season…close the season with a victory for the sixth year in a row…extend the Big Red's winning streak against Mansfield to eight and keep the team undefeated against the Mounties all time.

LAST TIME OUT
The last few minutes of the first half were kind to the Big Red, as it entered the break tied 14-14 against league-leading Navy. But after halftime, things fell apart. The Midshipmen scored four touchdowns in the final two quarters, and the Big Red only scored one, as Navy remained undefeated in the league with a 42-21 victory. Navy running back David Williams had 174 yards on 24 carries.

LOSS TO PENN
Cornell fell behind by  two touchdowns early against Penn last week and could not complete its comeback efforts late.  The Big Red scored 21 second-half points to Penn's 18, but the damage was done early as Penn's 17-7 lead at halftime held up. The game saw more strong passing and receiving performances, as quarterback Brendan Miller passed for 262 yards and got five catches for 103 yards from Abe Mellinger and another eight catches and 113 yards by Spenser Gruenenfelder. In the end, the Big Red defense could not stop Penn when it counted and was outscored 11-7 in the fourth quarter.

LOSS TO ARMY
Cornell lost at home last week against Army 41-16 despite jumping out  to a 10-0 lead. The Black Knights scored the next three touchdowns to go ahead 21-10, and though Cornell scored next to bring the deficit down to just five points, Army scored three more touchdowns in a row to leave Ithaca with the win.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
The Big Red had two players named CSFL players of the week for their efforts in the Princeton game. Defensive back Chris Sitko led the Big Red defense with 11 tackles was part of the effort that kept Princeton to just 159 yards. Punter Chase Funderburk made the most of his four punts, routinely pinning Princeton back inside its own 20-yard line with successful coffin corners. Funderburk averaged 32.8 yards per punt, but his specialty in the game was placement. He kicked balls out of bounds inside the Princeton 10-yard line twice, one of those times leading directly to a Cornell interception returned for a touchdown.

CATCHING THEM OFF GUARD
Mellinger has caught a team-high 28 passes for 503 yards and seven touchdowns so far this season with Cornell. His 18.0 yards per catch tops the CSFL. He is Cornell's scoring leader with 42 points, three points ahead of kicker John Rodriguez. Mellinger also claims 68 punt return and 287 kick return yards, giving him 858 total yards on the year that is tops among the Big Red. Mellinger, a transfer from Junianta College, calls Ronks, Pa., home.

LEAGUE RANKINGS
Cornell's offense finds itself ranked fifth out of seven teams in the CSFL this year, though its defense is better at fourth place and allowing 317 yards per game. Miller is third in passing yards with 1,229 total.

RED ZONE SUCCESS
The Big Red has entered the red zone 21 times this season and have scored on an impressive 17 of those chances. That 81 percent success rate is higher than Cornell has allowed, as opponents have only converted on 17 of 26 attempts (65 percent).

KICKING GAME
Kicker John Rodriguez is a perfect 3 for 3 on field goals from inside 29 yards and is 3 for 4 between 30 and 39 yards. On extra points, Rodriguez has not missed in 21 attempts.

BYE WEEK BLUES
After the loss to Army last week, the Big Red is now 1-7 following its bye week since 2001.

NATIONAL APPEAL
The sprint football team has players from 14 different states on the roster, with New York and California having the highest representation. Twenty-four players hail from the Empire State while the Golden State has 12 players on the Big Red roster. Just one player comes from Hawaii, North Carolina and Oklahoma.