ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell football team overcame a 17-point second half deficit and pulled out a 38-31 victory over a high-powered Brown offense on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. Sophomore tailback Randy Barbour rushed for a career-high 159 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead score in the extra session to help Cornell improve to 4-2 (1-2 Ivy). Brown slipped to 2-4 (1-2 Ivy) with the loss.

Barbour scored on runs of 13, 2 and 5 yards, the last coming on the Big Red's first possession of overtime. He spearheaded a running attack that posted 183 yards on the ground and would have been over 200 yards if it hadn't been for a 20-yard loss on a bad snap late in regulation. He added three catches for 25 yards.

Junior Nathan Ford connected on 34-of-54 passing for 292 yards, including a 14-yard scoring strike to junior Horatio Blackman. The catch was the first of Blackman's career. In all, 10 different receivers caught passes, including a 10-reception, 84-yard day for junior Zac Canty.

The Big Red offense piled up 475 yards of total offense and a school-record 33 first downs in front of the home crowd, improving to 3-1 at Schoellkopf Field this season. The defense did yeoman's work after halftime, limiting the Bears to 44 yards on 19 carries for the game and holding Brown to three-and-outs in three of its final four possessions of the contest, and intercepting quarterback Michael Dougherty on the first play of the fourth drive. Brown totaled just 19 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Freshman Emani Fenton recorded his first career interception in the win, while Gus Krimm and Doug Lempa tied a tea-high with seven tackles. Junior punter Nick Maxwell averaged 40.5 yards on his six punts with two pinning the Bears inside their own 20, while Peter Zell tied the game at 31-31 with a 24-yard field goal. He also hit on all five extra-point kicks. In a true, everyone contributed to the win-type contest, the offensive line didn't allow a sack in 54 pass attempts.

Brown's Michael Dougherty completed 32-of-55 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns, with Buddy Farnham catching 11 passes for 132 yards and a touchdown and Bobby Sewall grabbing seven balls for 55 yards and two touchdowns. Steve Ziogas had a game-high 12 tackles.

Brown dominated the first half, as only Barbour's two touchdowns kept the Big Red in the game as the home team went into the locker room staring a 24-14 deficit in the face. The Bears passed for 276 yards in the first half and totaled 308 yards, averaging 7.3 yards every time the offense snapped the ball. Cornell had little trouble on offense in the half either, making 16 first downs and piling up 235 yards of offense.

The Bears got on the board just 3:41 into the contest when Dougherty hit Sewall from 4-yards out just two plays after hitting Farnham on a perfect 38-yard strike down to the 2.

The Big Red had its first drive doomed with a personal foul penalty and punted as the Bears went back to work. This time Dougherty found Colin Cloherty on a 34-yard pass play down to the 1. Jonathan Edwards went the rest of the way on the next snap to complete the five-play, 51-yard scoring drive that made it 14-0.

Needing to get back into the game, the Cornell offense responded, showing it could air it out as well. Three straight completions by Ford, including two to tight ends, moved the ball to the Brown 36, followed by a 12-yard rush by Barbour. Another Barbour rush and a broken play scamper by Ford brought it down to the 13. The sophomore tailback then bounced a run to the outside, breaking a tackle and going 13-yards to cap a nine-play, 64-yard touchdown drive to make it 14-7 with 5:46 to play in the quarter.

Cornell looked like it caught a break on the next Brown possession, as Gus Krimm hit Paul Raymond from behind and knocked the ball loose with Chris Costello jumping on the loose football. After a conference, the officials handed the ball back to the Bears on an inadvertent whistle. Krimm made up for it by perfectly timing a jump and knocking a pass away to force a punt. Morgan made it count, pinning the Big Red on its own 4-yard line.

The Big Red's ensuing drive stalled, but Maxwell's kick pinned the Bears at their own 5-yard line as the first quarter came to an end. All that did was set up a challenge for the Brown offense. The team marched 95 yards on a sustained 15-play drive, ending with Dougherty's second scoring pass to Sewall, this time from 8-yards out. Morgan drilled the extra-point, making it 21-7 Brown with 8:25 left.

A 23-yard kickoff return by Walters brought the ball to the Cornell 35, which was followed by back-to-back big plays by Barbour to cross midfield. First, Barbour made an impressive fingertip catch for eight yards, followed by an 18-yard rush all the way to the Brown 39. After three short gainers, the Big Red converted a fourth-down attempt when Ford calmly found Barbour for a 6-yard pass. Another big rush by Barbour, this time for 12 yards, followed by a 10-yard run by Ford, brought the ball to the Brown 2. Barbour drove through the pile as the Big Red offensive line got a great push to convert from 2-yards out. Zell's conversion kick made it 21-14 with 3:36 left to set up a wild last three minutes.

On the first play from scrimmage, Dougherty connected on 44-yard pass to Raymond to the Cornell 36. The drive stalled a bit, and a fumbled handoff for a loss of seven yards moved Brown back to the Cornell 25. Two incomplete pass plays gave Morgan a 41-yard field goal attempt, and the Ivy League's all-time field goal leader was true with the effort to make it 24-14 with 1:28 left in the half.

Going into its hurry-up mode, Cornell quickly marched the ball down to the Brown 20 with nine seconds left. The big plays came from the passing game, as Ford hit Jesse Baker for 22 yards, then an 11-yard throw to Walters put the home team into field goal range. Zell's 37-yard attempt had plenty of distance, but hit the left upright. As the Bears brought the momentum into the break.

Cornell's first four possessions of the second half didn't give any indication of the comeback ahead, as the Big Red went three-and-out on the first, sending Maxwell out to punt. Brown didn't do anything on its first possession either, as the Bears misfired on a fourth down attempt and Cornell took over on downs at midfield. A three-and-out stop by the Brown defense was followed up by one for the Big Red.

The breakthrough seemed to come on the ensuing punt, as Walters took the ball 78 yards to the house for an apparent touchdown, but a block in the back penalty called it back to the C29. Three plays later Maxwell was back on the field. After the Bears kicked it right back, Ford dropped back and his throw went over the head of intended target Nick Zerante right into the waiting hands of Jon May, who returned the pick 51 yards down to the Cornell 12 before Ford made the touchdown-saving tackle. Three plays later with the short field, Dougherty found Farnham from 18 yards out to extend the lead to 31-14.

From there, it was all Cornell.

A 21-yard run by Barbour energized the sideline, and after a tough offensive pass interference call went against the home team to make it third-and-21, Ford found Baker over the middle for 26 yards to pick up a new set of downs. Ford then hit Canty for 15 yards down to the Brown 23. After the drive seemed to fizzle out at the 8, Peter Zell marched onto the field for a 26-yard field goal attempt. The snap was perfect, but Zell never got a chance to kick, as holder Tommy Bleymeier took off with the ball around the left end and marched 8-yards untouched on the fake for his first career touchdown. He then held as Zell's PAT made it 31-21 with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

With all of the momentum, Cornell attempted an on-sides kick, but the Bears recovered at the Cornell 43. The defensive line was up for the challenge of handing Brown the short field, forcing a three-and-out.

The third quarter ended with the Big Red taking the ball back. A 15-yard pass from Ford to Canty on third-and-8 kept the drive alive, with two rushes for a total of 15 yards by Barbour mixing in the run. Facing another third-and-7, Baker juggled a pass over the middle, hauling it in for 17 yards down to the Brown 12. Two plays later, Ford put a perfectly thrown ball up for Horatio Blackman, and the junior hauled in his first scoring play from 14 yards out to cap the 16-play, 88-yard drive to cut the lead to three at 31-28 with 9:19 left in regulation.

The Big Red defense again came up big, forcing another three-and-out by the Brown offense to set up the game-tying drive.

Cornell knotted the game up with a 24-yard field goal by Zell with 2:55 left. The drive was keyed by two huge plays – a 20-yard punt return by Walters to the Brown 30, then a Ford keeper on fourth-and-1 at the Brown 21, Cornell's fourth fourth-down conversion of the contest. Zell's kick was perfect after a Big Red timeout and made it 31-31.

Each team would get one final drive in the contest, with both teams punting. Cornell seemed to be marching toward the winning score in the final minute before a bad snap that lost 22 yards made a third-and-1 into a fourth-and-23 and a punt. The Bears had one final play as the final seconds ticked off, but Cornell freshman Emani Fenton stepped in front of the pass for his first career interception as time expired.

The Big Red needed just four plays to get into the end zone in its first overtime contest since the 2005 season at Princeton, a 20-17 loss. A pair of Barbour runs, including the game-winning 5-yard score, were sandwiched around Ford hitting Canty twice for a total of 16 yards. The grabs gave Canty a career-high 10 catches, making the junior the first player to record double figure catches in a contest since John Kellner hauled in 10 passes against Columbia in 2003.

Brown attempted to answer the bell in overtime, but gained just two yards in its first three plays, bringing up fourth-and-8. The Bears went with a trick play, as Dougherty hit Sewall with a lateral, then split out to the right. Sewall tried to hit Dougherty with a return pass, but the ball skipped into the quarterback's arms, ending the contest and sending the Big Red onto the field to celebrate its first overtime victory since topping Brown 10-7 in double overtime in 2002, the last Cornell previous win over the Bears.

The Big Red return to action on a rare Friday evening contest at the Princeton Tigers on Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.