NEW YORK, N.Y. -- As the Cornell football team was heading off the field after singing Cornell Victorious with the Big Red marching band, head coach David Archer '05 stopped senior Andrew Johnson and handed the reserve tight end the Empire State Bowl to carry to the locker room.

The two embraced, and Johnson proudly carried the trophy into the locker room to start the celebration. It was a small gesture to one of the leaders on a team that suffered through tough times in 2014, but it was a punctuation mark on where the program is headed.  

In a game full of intrigue, the Big Red overcame both prosperity and adversity on its way to a 30-27 victory over Ivy League rival Columbia on Saturday afternoon at Wien Stadium. The Big Red picked up its first win of the season (1-8, 1-5 Ivy) in emerging victorious in New York City for the first time since 2004. The Lions dropped to 0-9 (0-6 Ivy) with the hard-luck loss.

Junior Luke Hagy carried 19 times for a career-high 148 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a touchdown pass to highlight the offense, while freshman Nick Gesualdi had two interceptions, forced a fumble, had a huge sack on Columbia's final drive and broke up a third down pass to force a punt.

In the end, however, it was senior linebacker Taylor Betros who made the biggest play of the day. Just moments after the Big Red threw an interception that led to the go-ahead score for the Lions in the third quarter, Betros broke through on the PAT attempt and blocked it cleanly. Junior Jarrod Watson-Lewis scooped up the ball and raced to the end zone for two points for the visitors, cutting the new deficit to 27-23. Those points loomed large late in the game.

Hagy picked Cornell back up off the ground after giving up its 21-0 lead by bursting through the line untouched and outracing the entire defense for a 63-yard touchdown on the third offensive play of the fourth quarter for what would eventually be the game-winning touchdown.

Columbia had two opportunities to regain the lead, including its final drive that started with 4:53 left. The Lions crossed midfield, but a Gesualdi sack pushed Columbia back 12 yards and back over midfield into Lions territory. Two incompletions and a short pass later and the Big Red took over on downs with 1:15 left. Two kneeldowns in victory formation later and Cornell had earned its first singing celebration of the year.

It didn't look that way for a stretch in the second half, which was nearly unthinkable when the visitors took a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

After both teams punted on their first possession, Cornell marched right down the field aided by a Columbia facemask penalty. Hagy powered the ball in from 3 yards out on a fourth-and-inches and Pierik connected on the PAT attempt to make it 7-0 with 6:54 on the clock.

The lead grew to 14-0 two possessions later after freshman Sean Scullen stepped in front of a pass for his first career interception, setting Cornell up on the Columbia 19. On the very first play from scrimmage, Hagy boxed out two Columbia defenders at the goal-line, caught the pass from Robert Somborn and fell into the end zone to make it a two touchdown game. After forcing a punt on the Lions' ensuing drive, Somborn went up top to Collin Shaw on a perfectly thrown ball that resulted in a 70-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead just 1:49 into the second quarter.

Facing adversity of its own and trying to snap a 19-game losing skid on Senior Day, the Lions picked themselves up off the turf and got on the board. Leander Cutler caught a 2-yard play action pass from Trevor McDonagh to end a 15-play, 87-yard scoring drive to cut the Cornell lead to 21-7. That's where the game turned.

Cornell was snakebitten by a pair of unique special teams miscues to allow the Lions back into the contest. After an offensive drive stalled, the snap back to the punter sailed over punter Chris Fraser's head. The sophomore kicked the ball out of the end zone from the 9-yard line for an apparent safety, but the illegal touching penalty was accepted and the Lions took over on downs from the 4. On the very first play, backup quarterback Anders Hill ran the ball in for the score to make it 21-14 with 2:19 remaining before halftime.

Columbia took the opening kickoff in the second half and drove 71 yards on 12 plays for the game-tying touchdown, with Cameron Molina going the final yard to make it 21-21 with 7:26 left in the third. The ensuing kickoff landed between the Cornell returner and the up man, and Alex Holme took advantage and pounced on the football at the visitor 21. Gesualdi made a huge save, picking off a pass on the first play to momentarily escape danger.

It was only momentary, however, after Somborn had a pass picked off at the 16 two plays later by Matthew Cahal and returned to the 8. Cameron Molina ran the ball all four times for the eight yards, the last rush scoring on fourth-and-inches from inside the 1. That set up Betros' heroics.

Somborn completed 9-of-14 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns, with Shaw hauling in three passes for 82 yards and a score. Fraser averaged 41.4 yards on five punts on special teams, while Miles Norris, Jackson Weber and Logan Murphy matched Gesualdi's team-best seven tackles.

Molina ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries and also caught five passes for 56 yards. McDonagh was 17-of-29 passing for 183 yards and a touchdown, but also two of the team's three interceptions. JD Hurt made eight tackles, while Toba Akinleye notched four tackles and 1.5 sacks on the day.

Cornell closes out the 2014 season when it hosts Penn for Senior Day on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 12:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.