ITHACA, N.Y. — The sprint football team will look to right the ship on Friday night under the lights when Post visits Schoellkopf Field for a Collegiate Sprint Football League matchup. Cornell is coming into its penultimate home game of the season off of a bye week.
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: Cornell Big Red vs. Post Eagles
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Schoellkopf Field — Ithaca, N.Y.
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 1-3, Post 0-4
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
LIVE UPDATES: @CUBigRedGameday
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
After a win over Mansfield in week two, the Big Red has dropped two straight, falling to Chesnut Hill, 29-24, and most recently Army, 43-12, on Oct. 7, when the defending CSFL champion Black Knights used a 23-point first quarter. … Cornell fought back from a 16-point deficit against Chestnut Hill on Sept. 30 and took a one point lead in the fourth quarter only to see the Griffins score a touchdown in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. Freshman Will Griffen had a big game, rushing for 74 yards and catching nine balls for 103 yards. Senior quarterback Rob Pannullo had another productive game behind center, throwing for 235 yards and two touchdowns and running for 17 yards and a touchdown. The Cornell defense got stellar performances from John Zelek (10 tackles and one forced fumble) and Marcus Weeks (six tackles). … Cornell dropped the season-opener to Navy, 40-7, at home, but then earned its 13th straight victory over the Mansfield Mountaineers, 30-12, in the first road test of the year.
 
ABOUT ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH TERRY CULLEN
Terry Cullen, The Terry Cullen Head Coach of Sprint Football, has been the patriarch of the program at Cornell for 53 years after joining his father, former head coach Bob Cullen, in 1964. In his 53-year tenure, Terry Cullen has an overall record of 234-216-11 and his record as head coach is 175-151-7. Cullen has had two undefeated seasons (2006 and 1982) and won six league championships. His title was endowed in 2001 and, in 2008, he requested to relinquish some of his everyday coaching duties to co-head coach Bart Guccia.
 
ABOUT CO-HEAD COACH BART GUCCIA
This is Guccia's 12th season as a member of the sprint football staff and his eighth as a co-head coach. Since Guccia joined the Big Red staff in 2005, the team is a combined 44-35. As co-head coaches, Guccia and Cullen have amassed a 31-29 record.
 
THE LEADING RUSH
Freshman Will Griffen currently holds the title of longest rush of the CSFL season with a 69-yard burst against Chestnut Hill on Sept. 30. That rush helped bring Griffen's yards per play average in that game to 18.5, which is a single-game high for total offensive yards per play in a CSFL game this year.
 
HOME AGAIN
After three straight games on the road, the team finally returns home to Schoellkopf Field with the game against Post. This was just the third time in 22 years that the program played three straight away games. The last came during 2014 season when the Big Red lost to Penn and Army before taking on and beating Princeton, 55-0. In 1994, the team had to travel in consecutive weeks to take on Penn, Princeton, and Army.  

THE LONE ONSIDE
With its successful onside kick attempt against Army, Cornell became the only team this year in the CSFL to attempt and recover an onside kick.
 
PRODUCTIVE PUNTER
After five weeks of CSFL play, senior punter Ryan Jackson sits third overall in the league in punting. Jackson has punted 19 times for 684 yards, and his resulting 36.0 yards per punt average is third best. His 49-yard boot in the third quarter against Chestnut Hill is the fifth-longest punt in the league this year.
 
CAPTAIN QUINTUPLE
Cornell is led this year by five senior captains. The offense is represented by quarterback Rob Pannullo, running back Kevin Nathanson and lineman Caleb Minsky. On the other side of the ball, defensive back Ryan Jackson and linebacker Chris D'Ambrosio lead the defensive charge. All five players have been members of the sprint football team every year since their arrival at Cornell in the fall of 2013.
 
FRESH FACES
The sprint football program may have graduated 23 seniors after last season, but they also added 25 new faces to the roster this fall. Co-head coach Bart Guccia says that the 14 freshmen, five sophomores, five juniors and one senior will be critical in filling out the depth chart behind the plethora of returning starters.
 
BIG RED REWIND
Cornell finished the 2015 season with a 4-3 record, its first season over .500 since 2012, and finished fourth overall in the CSFL standings. … Rob Pannullo returns at the quarterback position for Cornell and will look to build off of his junior year when he accounted for 1,045 yards, throwing for 605 and  running for another 440. He was fourth overall in the CSFL for total offense in 2015. … On defense, Cornell returns nine starters from 2015. Seven of the top 10 tacklers are back, including 2015 All-CSFL second team honoree linebacker Chris D'Ambrosio, whose 40 tackles and three sacks both led the Big Red last year, is back for his senior season.
 
ABOUT POST
Post is coming off of a 64-0 loss to defending CSFL champion Army West Point and is still looking for its first win of the season. The team has been shut out in two of its four games, including a 50-0 loss at Navy. … The team led Chestnut Hill for two quarters before losing 14-12 after the Griffens found the end zone twice in the third quarter. …  The Eagles rank last in the league in both scoring offense and total offense, but it sits fifth – two spots above Cornell – in pass offense.  Buddy Enriquez has completed 51.91% of his passes for 653 yards and two touchdowns. … Chris Leggio leads the sixth-ranked Post defense with 46 total tackles.
 
THE SERIES WITH POST
Cornell put up 44 unanswered points last year against the Eagles in the final game of the season to earn a 44-6 win on the road. The Big Red defense was stingy, allowing just 103 rushing yards and 115 passing, and the Big Red offense was explosive, putting up 445 all-purpose yards. Cornell's record in the overall series is 2-4, with the other victory coming in the first meeting between the two teams back in 2010.

UP NEXT
The team hits the road next weekend when it travels to Penn on Friday night for a CSFL contest with the Quakers.