ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Big Red defense posted its first shutout in 22 years, special teams contributed the only points of the day and the Cornell offense ran out the clock when it needed to in ensuring the Empire State Bowl stays in the trophy case on East Hill. In a game full of emotion, the home team earned a hard-fought 3-0 win over Columbia on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field, sending the Big Red's seniors out with a win in their final home game.

Freshman Zach Mays' 35-yard field goal in the first quarter was the lone scoring and Cornell's defense did the rest. The Big Red forced a season-high three turnovers, limited the Lions to 302 yards of offense and allowed only one drive of more than seven plays or 35 yards - Columbia's final one of the day when a 44-yard field goal into the wind fell well short.

Needing to eat out the final 5::07 to snap a nine-game skid dating back to last year, Cornell pounded out three first downs, with sophomore Jack Gellatly running for 16 yards for the first and converting a third-and-1 against a stout Lion defense for the second. The third came courtesy of sophomore quarterback Jake Jatis, who went around the end for 16 yards on a decisive third-and-5 and then slid in bounds, allowing the Big Red to get into victory formation two plays later.

The defense made plays all night, with senior JJ Fives recording seven tackles and a sack and fellow captain Rush Imhotep making six stops. Junior Miles Norris posted a game-hight eight stops and forced a fumble that was recovered by sophomore Seth Hope. Sophomores Sean Scullen and Nick Gesualdi also intercepted passes, as the Cornell defense forced turnovers on the first three Columbia possessions of the second half, turned the Lions over on downs on the fourth and forced the visitors into a missed field goal on the fifth after a Kurt Frimel sack on third down knocked them out of effective field goal range.

Cornell won despite amassing just 193 yards of offense, including a hard-gained 60 rushing yards on 24 carries by Luke Hagy. The Big Red, in extremely windy conditions, completed just six passes for 41 yards, but never turned the ball over. Junior punter Chris Fraser flipped field position despite primarily kicking into the win, averaging a solid 41.2 yards on his eight punts, including pinning the Lions inside their own 5 prior to the Lions' last possession that ended in the missed field goal.


Columbia's Cameron Molina rushed for 151 yards on 29 carries to lead the offense, while Brock Kenyon notched eight tackles and Jared Katz broke up four passes among Cornell's nine incompletions. Dominic Perkovic blocked a field goal in the third quarter than could have extended the Big Red's lead.

The Cornell seniors went out on a high note, signing Cornell Victorious with the band after their final game in the shadow of the historical Crescent.

Much like the previous three weeks, Cornell won the first quarter decisively, but unlike games at Princeton and Dartmouth, its early lead stood.

Columbia opened the game with the ball and was forced to punt after just five plays, and the Big Red offense went to work on a 13-play, 73-yard drive that ended in Mays' clean field goal from 35 yards out. Luke Hagy carried the ball nine times on the drive, but it was a Robert Somborn 26-yard run and a 13-yard carry by Jake Jatis that did the lion's share of the leg work. At the end of 15 minutes, that kick had stood up and Cornell had a nearly 2:1 advantage in time of possession (9:47-5:13) and an 83-51 edge in total yards.

The first half took barely an hour to complete as the two teams ran the ball 43 times, passed 19 and threw incomplete 11 times over 30 minutes.

The second half went nearly as quick, with Columbia's best scoring opportunity coming on its final drive of the night. The Lions took the ball with 13:16 on the clock and drove 16 plays and 70 yards after a Fraser punt of 49 yards drove the visitors back to their own 4 to start. Columbia reached first-and-goal from the eight and looked as though they had scored from five yards out on the next play, but a holding penalty pushed the Lions back to the 16. Anders Hill took a 10-yard sack by Kurt Frimel and all of a sudden Cameron Nizialek was lining up for a 44-yard field goal. He got it up into the wind and the kick fell far short as the Big Red defense gained a stop on Columbia's only trip into the red zone. Just 5:07 later, the Big Red was celebrating its first win of 2015.

NOTES TO KNOW
• The shutout was Cornell's first since defeating Yale 21-0 on Nov. 6, 1993.
• It also was the program's first 3-0 win since toppling Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. on Oct. 11, 1986.
• The last time Cornell won a game with less than 200 yards of offense was in 2009 at Yale, when the Big Red topped the Bulldogs 14-12 with 166 yards.
• With 74 all-purpose yards in the game, senior Luke Hagy moved into fourth place on the school's list with 3,871 yards, surpassing Derrick Harmon '84 (3,800).
• Junior Robert Somborn's 41 passing yards moved him into10th place on the school's career list (2,714).
• Cornell is 4-2 in the Empire State Bowl series, including 4-1 in the last five meetings.
• Sophomore Nick Gesualdi had his fifth career interception in the win, giving him three in two seasons against Columbia.
• For the second straight year, both Gesualdi and classmate Sean Scullen had INTs against  the Lions in a three-point win.
• The victory was Cornell's 632nd in program history, good for 12th among all FCS teams.
• Freshman Zach Mays' 35-yard field goal, which proved to be the game winner, was a career long.

QUOTABLE


EMPIRE STATE BOWL NOTES
• Officially established in 2010, the Empire State Bowl has been the unofficial nickname of the Cornell-Columbia series for many years.
• Cornell leads the series 4-2, with each team holding serve at home before last season.
• Cornell's other wins in the series came in 2011 (62-41), 2013 (24-9) and 2014 (30-27).
• Columbia won the first-ever Empire State Bowl in 2010 with an exciting last-minute 20-17 victory at Wien Stadium to capture the traveling trophy.

SENIOR SEND-OFF
• Prior to the coin toss, Cornell football honored 24 seniors on the occasion of their final home game.
• Cornell's seniors are CB Del Barnes, OL Daniel Cunningham,TE Matt Doneth,WR VJ Fitzpatrick, OLB JJ Fives, OLB Jonathan Ford, FB Julian Gallo, RB Luke Hagy, S Rush Imhotep,TE Andrew Johnson, DL Brett Jones, WR Chris Lenz, WR Ben Rogers, P/PK Ardian Sahinovic, OLB Debo Sodeke, S/OLBTwan Terrell, LS Matt Testani, CB Jarrod Watson-Lewis, OLB James White and OL Zach Wilk.
• Additionally, two players whose careers were cut short due to injury were also celebrated - QB James Few and LB Bobby Marani.
• On offense, the Big Red started its regular offensive line with all seniors accompanying them - running back Luke Hagy lined up as a wildcat quarterback, while reserve tight ends Matt Doneth and Andrew Johnson took the field alongside fullback Julian Gallo and senior receivers Chris Lenz and VJ Fitzpatrick.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red will close out its 128th season of football on Saturday, Nov. 21 when it visits Penn for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
• The game will be played for the Trustee's Cup.
• This will be the 122nd meeting between the teams, with Penn leading 70-46-5.