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ITHACA, N.Y. -– Cornell's All-America pitch-and-catch combo of Jeff Mathews and Shane Savage sat on the sidelines in warmups while watching a senior tandem establish a school record. In the end, their efforts went a long way in helping Cornell to a 41-38 win over Monmouth on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field.

Senior Chris Amrhein, playing in place of the injured Mathews, completed 33-of-56 passes for 523 yards and a touchdown without a turnover. His yardage total ranks second all-time in a single game at Cornell, behind only Mathews' 548-yard effort in last season's finale at Penn. It is also the third-highest total in Ivy League history.

Classmate Luke Tasker caught 11 of those passes for a school single-game record 280 yards and the lone touchdown. He became the sixth Cornell receiver to surpass 2,000 career yards in the process. The previous single-game record of 204 yards had been held by Joe Splendorio in the 1999 game against Brown. It was the third-highest total by an Ivy League receiver in conference history.

"I mean, I've been catching balls from Chris longer than I've been catching passes from Jeff," Tasker said. "We're both seniors, we came in together. Kurt (Ondash) and I have spent a lot of time with Chris, so this isn't a surprise to us how he played."

While the two veterans spearheaded an offense that piled up 581 yards, the most ever allowed by Monmouth, freshman Silas Nacita finished those drives off. The rookie found the end zone four times, becoming the first Big Red player to score four touchdowns in a single game since Derrick Harmon in 1983 against Columbia. Running out of the wildcat formation, he scored from 1, 1, 3 and 6 yards out.

Junior John Wells booted a pair of field goals and was true on all five extra-point kicks while booting three of his eight kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks. Grant Gellatly posted 140 all-purpose yards and Kurt Ondash caught six passes for 66 yards. The offensive line, with freshman center Zach Wilk starting for an injured Bob Bullington, allowed just one sack and gave Amrhein enough time to post his outstanding day.

Defensively, the Big Red got 13 tackles, including a sack and a forced fumble, from junior Brett Buehler to lead the way. Freshman Logan Murphy had a pair of sacks and sophomore Cadell Williams forced a fumble. Both junior Brian Gee and freshman J.J. Fives each recovered fumbles.

The two teams combined for nearly 1,200 yards of offense (1,183 yards to be exact) and 974 yards in the air. In all, 72 of the 79 points were scored in the final three quarters.

The Amrhein and Tasker show overshadowed a fine performance by Monmouth's Kyle Frazier, who completed 35-of-45 passes for 451 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for a game-high 62 yards. Four different receivers scored at least once, with Tristan Roberts leading the way with seven catches for 174 yards and a score. Three different defensive players were credited with double figures in tackles, including Dan Sullivan, who had the team's only sack and a pair of tackles for loss. Monmouth piled up 602 yards of offense in the loss.

The first 13 minutes of the game didn't foretell how the game would play out, as the teams traded four punts and possessions that ended in a fumble and a turnover on downs. The Monmouth turnover, a fumble caused by Buehler and recovered by Brian Gee, set up a short field. Cornell wasted little time converting on a four-play scoring drive sparked by a 29-yard pass to Hagy up the left sideline. A roughing the passer penalty bumped the ball up to the 1, leading to a touchdown run from Nacita two plays later. The PAT kick gave the Big Red a 7-0 lead after the opening quarter.

That would open the scoring floodgates. The touchdown kicked off a string of three straight scoring drives between the two teams. The Hawks drove 90 yards over 10 plays to tie the score at 7-7, but the Big Red responded immediately with a 14-play drive in under four minutes.

Amrhein sparked two third-and-10 conversions on completions to Gellatly and Tasker to set up the Big Red on the Hawks' 20. A pass up the right sideline for 17 yards to Ondash, who held onto the ball after absorbing a big hit from behind, pushed the ball down to the 3. But a negative gain on a rush and two incomplete passes then led to a 24-yard field goal by Wells to give Cornell a 10-7 lead.

Monmouth answered with a drive into Big Red territory before a Frazier scramble was ended when Cadell Williams stripped the ball loose and J.J. Fives recovered. Cornell's offense then converted with another scoring drive when Tasker snapped up a pass by his feet and extended the ball past the goal line for his fifth touchdown of the season. The extra point gave the Big Red its biggest lead to that point, 17-7, and Tasker already had 135 receiving yards in the first half.

The two-score lead was short-lived, though, as Monmouth countered with a 85-yard bomb from Frazier to a wide-open Tristan Roberts down the left sideline to draw the Hawks back to within a field goal.

Nick Mlady reeled in a pass in the left flat on a third-and-17, then made a move inside a would-be tackle to gain 18 yards and a first down to keep the final push of the half alive. A holding penalty and incompletion were followed by what appeared to be a touchdown catch by Ondash over the middle with 27.1 seconds remaining, but another holding penalty brought the play back. Amrhein was then sacked to push the Big Red further back and force the team to unsuccessfully attempt a Hail Mary in the waning seconds before the half.

After Monmouth punted on its first possession of the third quarter, Cornell's offense went right back to work. Nacita took the snap on a third-and-short, then rushed up the middle for a first down to put the Big Red in business on its first drive of the second half. Wells capped off the drive with a 37-yard field goal to give the hosts a 20-14 advantage.

The Hawks stormed back with their third touchdown, but couldn't take the lead when the extra-point attempt was swatted away by a Cornell defender. Eric Spillane then drilled a 27-yard field goal in the final minute of the stanza to give the visitors a 23-20 lead at the end of the third quarter.

That lead would also be short-lived. Just 74 seconds later, Cornell had regained the edge. The five-play, 79-yard scoring strike was highlighted by a 41-yard bomb from Amrhein to Tasker down to the 1, with Nacita taking the direct snap and scoring two plays later to make it 27-23. After the defense forced a three-and-out, Nacita finished off another five-play scoring drive, this time covering 63 yards. The big play was another long pass play by the seniors, with Tasker hauling in a 45-yard throw down to the 3. Cornell had extended the lead to 11 (34-23) with a little less than 11 minutes to play.

Monmouth used a little more than two minutes to get those points back, and then some. A 37-yard completion from Frazier to Roberts put the Hawks into scoring territory, and three plays later Frazier scrambled out of danger on third-and-13 and found a sliding Eric Sumlin for a 28-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion pass went to Neal Sterling and the visitors were back within a field goal at 34-31.

Cornell came right back and answered the bell again, with long passes to Gellatly (31 yards) and Tasker (17 yards) making up the drive, as well as a key third-down conversion catch by Jake Allyn on a third-and-2. Nacita ran it in again, his fourth touchdown of the day and fifth of the season, to extend the Big Red advantage back to two possessions.

Monmouth once again scored, but needed 10 plays and 3:03 off the clock to do so. By the time Frazier found Sterling from 25 yards out, there was just 1:08 remaining on the clock. Cornell recovered the on-sides kick thanks to the hands of Kurt Ondash, then watched as the visitors burned a pair of timeouts. Facing a third-and-6 with the clock running, Amrhein hit Ondash at the chains for a first down, allowing the Big Red to take a knee to run out the clock.

The Big Red returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 12:30 p.m. when it visits Brown.