NEW HAVEN, Conn. – For one team, it was its second straight fourth quarter comeback. For the other, it was the second straight weekend of fourth quarter heartbreak. Cornell came out on the short side of a 33-26 decision against last season's Ivy League runner-up Yale at the Yale Bowl in front of nearly 16,000. The Bulldogs improved to 2-0, while the Big Red slipped to 0-2 in the Ivy League opener for both squads.
With Cornell seemingly in control throughout, Yale battled back to tie the game with 1:12 left after blocking a 42-yard field goal attempt that likely would have put the game on ice. Instead, the Bulldogs took the momentum, forced a three-and-out after the kickoff and used a 52-yard pass play from Morgan Roberts to Sebastien Little with 0:32 left to take its first lead of the game.
The turn of events soured what was Cornell's second consecutive outstanding effort against one of the top teams in the region. After giving up a fourth quarter lead a week ago to a Bucknell team that finished second in the Patriot League a week ago, this effort came against the Ivy League runner-up from 2014, and a team that had topped the Big Red 51-13 last fall.
Cornell built that lead on the legs of senior
Luke Hagy (23 carries, 117 yards and a touchdown), who posted his fifth straight 100-yard game on the ground. Junior
Collin Shaw caught seven passes for 114 yards, his second career 100-ard game, as the favorite target of junior
Robert Somborn. Somborn completed 20-of-30 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. Senior fullback
Julian Gallo also caught a touchdown pass in the loss.
The Big Red's defense did outstanding work for most of the contest against one of the most explosive offenses. Yale led the nation in scoring offense a season ago, but
Nick Gesualdi (10 tackles),
Jarrod Watson-Lewis (four tackles, two pass breakups) and the middle linebacking tandem of
Miles Norris and
Jackson Weber (nine combined tackles, two sacks) were instrumental in keeping Cornell in control throughout. Two of Yale's scoring drives came on possessions where they gained less than 20 yards.
Roberts led Yale with a 25-of-47 passing day for 371 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a fourth. Little caught four passes for 100 yards and his score, one of three Yale receivers to catch a touchdown on the day.
Numbers Game• Senior
Luke Hagy posted his fifth consecutive 100-ard game with 23 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown. The last time a Cornell player had as many consecutive games of the century mark was when future NFL tailback Chad Levitt had six straight during the 1996 campaign.
• Hagy entered the game 10th on the school's career rushing list and ended the contest in eighth with 1,844 yards. He surpassed Joe Holland '79 (1,755 yards) and Pete Larson '67 (1,751 yards).
• Hagy also moved from ninth to seventh on the school's all-purpose yardage list, surpassing Scott Oliaro '93 (3,260 yards) and Gary Wood '64 (3,337 yards). He ended the day with 3,345 yards.
• With his six catches, Hagy jumped to 10th all-time at Cornell in receptions (129).
• Cornell's 20 points in the second quarter is the most in a quarter by a Big Red team since scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter of a 42-35 loss to Brown in 2013.
Notes to Know• Senior fullback
Julian Gallo's 7-yard touchdown catch to open the scoring wasn't just his first career catch and his first career score, but it also came on his second varsity touch. He previously had one carry as a sophomore against Harvard.
• Freshman running back
Chris Walker earned his first varsity playing time and picked up a 4-yard carry.
• Junior tight end
Nick Bland, who entered the game with one career catch, caught three passes for 34 yards, including a career-long 26-yard catch.
• Senior
Debo Sodeke's blocked PAT in the second quarter was his first career block.
• Junior punter
Chris Fraser averaged 43.8 yards on his four punts with one downed inside the 20. He allowed just one punt return yard.
• Cornell scored touchdowns on four of its first five drives and won the time of possession battle 33:44-26:16.
Streaking•
Luke Hagy extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 31.
• Cornell hasn't been shut out in 51 games dating back to 2009.
• Yale won its third consecutive game in the series and extended its all-time advantage to 47-29-2.
• Make the Big Red 27-31-2 in its 60 Ivy League openers, including 5-11 against Yale.
Quotable"I feel like I'm htiting the repeat button from last week. What an awesome Saturday afternoon college football game and what a heartbreaking ending for Cornell. I told the team after the game that we played well enough to win, I thought we were pretty dominant at times, but similar to last week, we didn't put together all phases of the game. Today we didn't play particularly well in the kicking game - not just our kicker - but our whole special teams unit needs to play better. We really gave away some opportuinities and big plays to them. I'm not in the business for moral victories, but I am in the business of building Cornell football, and I think anyone that watched Cornell-Yale play last year and Cornell-Yale this year would say "Whoa, thse guys have put a heck of a lot of work into and our really progressing their program."" -- Head coach David Archer '05, the Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Cornell Football Picture This
Coach to Cure MD• Cornell's coaches wore Coach to Cure MD patches on the sidelines this weekend as part of focusing the attention of the nation's sports fans on the fight to cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the most prolific genetic killer diagnosed in childhood
• Football fans can donate to life-saving research by either going online at www.coachtocuremd.org or by texting the word CURE to 90999 on their mobile phones to give $5 on the next mobile phone bill.
Familiar Digs• Cornell will get used to its lodging, as it will stay in the same hotel three weeks from now when the Big Red is back in Connecticut to play at Sacred Heart.
• The Big Red and the Pioneers will meet on the gridiron for the first time on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 1 p.m.
Next Up• The Big Red returns home for three of its next four contests beginning with a matchup against Colgate on Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• Cornell has a narrow 48-45-3 lead in the all-time series, and this will be the 97th all-time meeting between the Central New York rivals.
