ABOUT COLUMBIA
• The Lions enter the season finale with a 5-4 record (2-4 Ivy) after last weekend’s 31-24 overtime victory at Brown.
• The Lions have won consecutive road games entering the weekend, topping Harvard (21-20) and Brown (31-24 in overtime) in exciting last-minute finishes.
• Caden Bell (967 yards, nine touchdowns) has taken over from 2021 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Joe Green (947 yards, seven touchdowns), who will miss the remainder of the season due to injury.
• Bryson Canty (50 catches, 680 yards, six touchdowns) paces the team and ranks third in receiving yards and receptions in the conference, with both JJ Jenkins (36 catches, 397 yards, two touchdowns) and Marcus Libman (37 catches, 375 yards, four touchdowns) also sharing the load.
• Joey Giorgi (533 yards, four touchdowns) and Ryan Young (360 yards, one touchdown) lead a rushing attack that is averaging 144.9 yards per contest.
• The Lions’ defense ranks fifth nationally in rushing defense, surrendering just 93.8 yards per game and paces the conference and ranks 13th nationally in defending on third downs (.326).
• Scott Valentas has been one of the conference’s most dominant defenders, ranking among the Ancient Eight leaders with 85 tackles to go aling with 6.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions, seven pass breakups, three quarterback hurries and a blocked kick.
• Fara’ad McCombs has posted 56 tackles and Justin Townsend leads the squad in tackles for loss (9.5) and sacks (6.0).
• All-Ivy place-kicker Alex Felkins is the team’s leading scorer with 52 points and ranks second in the Ivy League in field goals made per game (1.1).
• Head coach Al Bagnoli returns for an eighth year on the Columbia sidelines after a legendary career at Penn.
• Bagnoli spent 23 years at Penn, where he totaled a 148-80 overall record and 112-49 record in the Ivy League with nine conference championships.
• Bagnoli is 34-35 on the sidelines at Columbia and now has a 267-133 mark in 40 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
THE SERIES
• This will be the 109th meeting between Cornell and Columbia, with the Big Red holding a 66-39-3 lead in the series.
• The two teams first met in 1889, a 20-0 Cornell win.
• The squads have been evenly matched for more than two decades, with the teams splitting the last 32 (series tied 16-16) over the last three decades.
• Cornell had previously won 12 straight contests, the longest streak in the series by either team.
• The Lions had their two-game win streak snapped in 2019 when the Big Red ran away with a 35-9 victory at Schoellkopf Field, but has now won three-of-four after last season’s 34-26 victory in Ithaca.
THE EMPIRE STATE BOWL
• 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 6-5.
• The trophy currently resides in New York City following Columbia’s 34-26 victory last fall in Ithaca.
• Cornell’s other wins in the series came in 2011 (62-41), 2013 (24-9), 2014 (30-27), 2015 (3-0) and 2019 (35-9).
• 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.
THE LAST MEETING WITH COLUMBIA
• Columbia rallied from a 13-0 first half deficit, forcing five turnovers and holding off Cornell late for a 34-26 victory at Schoellkopf Field to reclaim the Empire State Bowl.
• Cornell outgained the Lions 431-257 and held the ball on offense for more than 36 minutes.
• The Big Red’s three quarterbacks combined for five interceptions, one off a single-game Columbia defensive record.
• Cornell’s defense was game, allowing just 4.3 yards per play and allowing the visitors a miserable 10-of-24 passing game, but three of the Lions’ scoring drives covered fewer than 46 yards.
• Jake Stebbins registered a game-high nine tackles, while senior captain Lance Blass made five stops, including one for a loss, and intercepted a pass.
• Devon Brewer had a career-high 87 rushing yards and a touchdown to lead the Big Red rushing attack, while Alex Kuzy hauled in eight passes for 102 yards.
• Curtis Raymond III caught a fourth quarter touchdown and Thomas Glover had four receptions for 49 yards.
• Senior Scott Lees had a big day on special teams, matching a single-game school record with four field goals, adding a pair of PATs, booting four of his six kickoffs through the end zone (one was an on-sides kick) and averaged 34.3 yards on three punts.
• Dante Miller and Gabriel Hollingsworth each had touchdown runs and Joe Green threw for a pair of scores, one to Wills Meyer and another to Bryson Canty.
• Alex Felkins booted two field goals and both Ryan Rhoden and Scott Valentas had nine tackles apiece.
• Will Allen had two interceptions for the Lions, while Ben Mathiasmeier, Jordan Colbert and Cameron Brown each recorded one.
LAST TIME OUT
RECAP I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY I POSTGAME NOTES
• The formula established by the Cornell seniors - ball control offense, stingy against the run defensively and a steely reserve against adversity - played itself out in their final home contest of their collegiate career.
• The Big Red used all three phases of the game to pull out a 17-13 win over defending Ivy League champion Dartmouth at Schoellkopf Field.
• Cornell held the ball for nearly 38 minutes on offense and piled up 141 rushing yards, limited the Big Green to 47 yards on the ground itself, answered Dartmouth’s go-ahead score with a special teams touchdown and guaranteed itself its first .500 or better season since 2011 in the process.
• The win was a just reward for a senior class of 18 in front of the home crowd and kept alive hope for the program’s first winning season since 2005.
• Connor Henderson had 10 tackles and a key pass breakup in the fourth quarter, Brody Kidwell recorded three tackles for loss and senior captain Demetrius Harris forced and recovered a fumble to spur a defense that allowed just 281 total yards.
• The offense methodically used the clock to its advantage, keeping the Big Green defense on the field for 37:52 grinding out 17 first downs.
• Robert Tucker III scored the lone touchdown, the first of his career, on a 1-yard run in the second quarter to give the home team the lead.
• Jameson Wang controlled the game, completing 13-of-18 passes for 128 yards and running for 32 more with both Nicholas Laboy (three catches, 39 yards) and Thomas Glover (three catches, 31 yards) his favorite targets.
• Freshman Davon Kiser gifted Cornell the go-ahead score late in the third quarter with an electric 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, the first by a Big Red player since Rashad Campbell took a kick back 78 yards at Princeton on Oct. 29, 2011.
• It was the 20th kickoff return for a score in school history.
• Additionally, Jackson Kennedy booted all four of his kickoffs through the end zone for touchdowns and his 28-yard field goal in the fourth meant that Dartmouth couldn’t settle for one of its own in the final seconds.
• Nick Howard completed 19-of-33 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown and ran six times for an additional 26 yards to pace the Dartmouth offense.
• Defensively, Charles Looes had 12 tackles with a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery, while Joe Heffernan (11 tackles, forced fumble) and Macklin Ayers (10 tackles) also had double-digit stops.
• The Big Green defense surrendered just 276 yards and 17 first downs itself.
