ITHACA, N.Y.— Despite 211 total offensive yards highlighted by
Xavier Martinez's two touchdown passes to
Evan Nicholas, the Cornell sprint football team succumb to Caldwell Friday night, 32-12 at Schoellkopf Field.
Cornell opened with a strong 62-yard drive down to the Caldwell five, but
Spencer Katz's field goal attempt was blocked by Caldwell's Jahmall Readus to start the game. The early momentum shift would eventually give way to a turn over on downs on the following drive and an errant snap to the punter that resulted in a Caldwell safety on the next.
The second quarter opened with another Big Red turnover on downs before Caldwell's Frank DeMaio completed to Nadir Orsini for a 26-yard touchdown pass to put the Cougars up 9-0 at the half.
Joseph Mongelli rushed for a two-yard Cougar touchdown in the opening minutes of the third before Tyler Kubicka's punt attempt at the 12:09 mark was blocked and recovered for a Caldwell touchdown. The Cougars scored again on an Anthony Haines five-yard rush just under ten minutes later to put Caldwell up 29-0 nearing the end of the third quarter. Cornell wouldn't go down without a fight though, and
Xavier Martinez connected with
Evan Nicholas for a 71-yard touchdown to give the Big Red its first of its season.
A 25-yard George Escobar field goal attempt put the Cougars up 32-6 in the middle of the fourth, and the duo of Martinez and Nicholas connected one last tiime for an 18-yard field goal after a successful eight-play, 70-yard drive.
A perfect onside kick by
Tyler Matsunaga was the Big Red's final attempt at a comeback. While it was successfully recovered, it wouldn't be enough and the Big Red fell to 0-2 on the season. Caldwell went 2-0 for the first time in school history with the win, which also marks the first-ever for the Cougars over the Big Red.
Matt Peck led the defense with 11 tackles, while
Will Anderson and
Nate Roy each had eight. Roy totaled two tackles for loss for a total of seven yards, while
Calvin Hosler's two tackles racked up six yards for loss.
Luke Verzella averaged 16 yards a return on special teams.
The Big Red's next challenge comes Oct. 8 as it travels to Philadelphia to play Penn.
