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ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell sprint football dropped its first contest of the 2014 campaign, coming up short against Ivy League rival Penn 36-19 at Franklin Field on Friday. While the Big Red rolled right down the field for a touchdown on its opening drive, the Quakers scored 29 of the next 32 points in the contest to snatch the victory.
 
Junior running back Benjamin Herrera had a monster game, gashing the Penn defense for 133-yards on 24-carries and a touchdown.
 
Sophomore signal caller Rob Pannullo had trouble in his first road start as the team's primary signal caller. He completed 12-of-25 passes for 102-yards and a touchdown, but also had three turnovers – two interceptions and one fumble – in the contest. He added 14 rushing attempts for 46-yards.
 
Sophomore linebacker Christopher D'Ambrosio was all over the field on the defensive side of the ball. He led the Big Red with a team high eight tackles – all solo – while recording two tackles-for-loss and one sack.
 
The Big Red got off to a flying start to the contest. After receiving the opening kickoff, Pannullo marched the Cornell offense on a nine-play 59-yard drive. The drive was capped with two-yard rush by Herrera to open the scoring. Penn blocked the extra-point, but was flagged for an encroachment penalty. With the added yard of field position, head coach Bart Guccia elected to go for the two-point conversion. Pannullo threw a quick strike to Ben Kroll and just like that the Big Red was up 8-0.
 
The Cornell (1-1) defense was stout on the Quakers' first two possessions, forcing two straight three-and-outs. However, the offense could not add to the Cornell lead.
 
The Penn (2-0) offense began to find traction on the final drive of the first quarter. The Quakers went four-plays for 56-yards to cut the Cornell lead to 8-6. The big play of the drive was a Mike Beamish 50-yard rush to set the Quakers up inside the Big Red 10-yardline.
 
The ensuing possession, Pannullo threw his first of two interceptions on the night. Penn made quick work with the change in momentum going three-plays for 53 yards, capped with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Mike McCurdy to Mario del Cueto to take a lead the Quakers would not relinquish.
 
Trailing for the first time, Cornell would go nine-plays for 54-yards on the ensuing possession, but the drive would stall in the Quaker redzone. Sady Ramirez Ossa connected from 22-yards out and the deficit was cut to 13-11.
 
The Cornell offense would have trouble getting things going after that. On its next possession Pannullo fumbled and Penn defender Rob Diorio would scoop and score on a 38-yard return to take control of the game.
 
Beamish added a second touchdown run to open the Penn lead to 29-11 with just under nine minutes to play.
 
With its backs against the wall, the Big Red responded with nine-play 55-yard drive to cut the deficit to 29-19. Sophomore back Kevin Nathanson had a 21-yard rush on the drive, before Pannullo connected with Trevor Marrero on a 21-yard pass play for the touchdown with 6:05 remaining.
 
The deficit proved to be too much to overcome. Mike Beamish added the exclamation point, notching his third rushing touchdown to ice the game with 1:45 remaining.
 
Up next for the Big Red is trip to West Point to take on Army. Opening kick is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3.