Box Score
Final Season Stats

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell ended its sprint football season in thrilling fashion, holding off a feisty Mansfield squad that threatened until the final seconds ticked off the clock.

A sack by junior Charles Clausner on the final play of the game handed the Big Red a 21-14 victory that snapped a three-game losing skid and let the team ends its season on a high note for the sixth consecutive year.

The win for Cornell (3-4) was also the eighth in program history against Mansfield (2-5), who now has an 0-8 lifetime record against Cornell.

Cornell, leading 21-7 with under four minutes to play, made life more difficult for itself by stopping the clock with two incompletions when Mansfield had no timeouts remaining. That kept time on the clock, and the snap on a 40-yard field goal attempt was bobbled and blocked when kicker John Rodriguez booted the horizontal ball.

Mansfield's Jon Keller recovered the block and scooted 72 yards down the field for a touchdown that brought the Mounties within seven points.

All seemed well once more when Cornell recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the Big Red failed to convert a third down and then threw an incompletion on a fourth  down pass that would have iced the game.

Instead, Mansfield took over with 1:14 remaining. Still, Cornell again appeared to be out of the woods when the Mounties faced a daunting fourth-and-17. Instead, quarterback Mike Mansicalo – who had just seven passing yards to that point – found double-covered freshman receiver/punter Sean Green for a 47-yard bomb down the middle of the field.

After spiking the ball to stop the clock, Maniscalo hit Green again for 13 yards, setting up a final play from the Cornell 16-yard-line with 1.7 seconds remaining. With both sidelines clumped near the 25-yard-line, all the pressure was on Clauser.

Dropping back for the pass and finding no one open, Maniscalo crumpled to the ground when Clausner hit him from the right side. Game over.

The Big Red players ran to the center of the field in celebration, happy to have eked out the tight win in the season finale.

Despite the close ending, Cornell was the far superior team throughout the night. When the dust had cleared, Cornell out-gained Mansfield 294 yards to 140. Quarterback Brendan Miller had 180 passing yards and two rushing touchdowns to his name, and the Mounties' quarterback tandem racked up only 119 passing yards on 21 attempts. The Mounties quarterbacks also combined for four interceptions.

And even with all the good bits for Cornell in the middle, the game's start and finish was all Mansfield.

Conell's first drive ended in disaster, as a low snap on a punt attempt left Joseph Martin scrambling to pick up the ball and attempt a late punt. Mansfield was all over him, and Keller blocked the punt into the end zone. He then ran to the ball, recovered it and put the Mounties on the board.

But the Big Red was resilient, getting the ball midway through the quarter and successfully converting a fourth-and-17 attempt thanks to a Mansfield pass interference penalty. Three plays later, Miller kept the ball for a four-yard touchdown run that tied the game.

Things looked promising for Cornell in the second quarter as well, though a 48-yard completion from Miller to Abe Mellinger down to the five-yard line wound up being for nothing. On the next play, Doug Famularo fumbled, giving the ball back to the Mounties.

Two Cornell drives later, though, the Big Red got back into the end zone. A combination of bruising runs from Famularo and a potent passing attack from Miller led the team down to the Mansifled six-yard line. This time, Famularo got the ball and ran right, then pitched it to Mellinger on a reverse. Mellinger ran untouched left into the end zone.

Cornell's third touchdown came at the end of a seven-play, 82-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard run by Miller. The drive's highlight was a 27-yard completion to senior Tim Bruhn and a rush by Famularo that put him over the 1,000-yard mark for rushing yards in his career.

The Big Red's season ended on a high note, as it avoided its lowest win total since 2004 by earning a third win. Miller passed for 1,400 yards on the season, Mellinger notched 609 receiving yards and seven touchdowns to lead the team, and Famularo had 347 yards in his senior season. On defense, Colin Lounsberry, Tim Dooley and John Kelder all tallied more than 40 tackles. Rodriguez was a perfect 24-of-24 on extra points.