ITHACA, N.Y. — New Cornell sprint football head coach Nick Quartaro and his staff preached effort and attitude to their team in the lead-up to the 2023 season. The Big Red showed a lot of both on Friday night at Schoellkopf Field.
Quartaro's team trailed Caldwell University 16-2 well into the fourth quarter of its season opener before staging a furious rally. The Bid Red recovered an onside kick and scored two touchdowns in the last 6:15 of the contest before running out of time in a 16-14 loss to the Cougars, who beat Cornell 40-20 last October.
Cornell senior quarterback Cooper Wise completed 18 of 36 passes for 152 yards and ran eight times for 14 yards and a touchdown. Senior running back Ralph Fleuranvil finished with 66 yards rushing and a touchdown on 15 attempts.
Senior linebacker Billy Turner led the Big Red's defense, tying his career high with 11 tackles. Senior defensive back Jaden Queen recorded two pass breakups.
The Big Red's comeback began with a 10-play, 70-yard march that started at the Cornell 30-yard line with 10:59 left. Fleueranvil and Wise made key plays to keep the drive — and the game — alive. Fleueranvil gained 16 yards on a screen pass on 3rd-and-11 from the Cornell 29, and four plays later, on 4th-and-3 from the Caldwell 48, Wise completed an 8-yard pass to wide receiver Marcos Hernandez. Flueranvil later capped the drive with a 19-yard touchdown, the first of his career, to cut Caldwell's lead to 16-8.
On the ensuing kickoff, kicker Sumner Roberts bounced an onside kick that sophomore Jason Schlotzhauer dove to recover. The Big Red's offense began its drive at the Cornell 47 and quickly moved deep into Caldwell territory. Wise completed passes for 13 and 19 yards before scrambling for an 11-yard touchdown to pull Cornell within two, 16-14. But the Big Red's two-point conversion attempt failed.
Caldwell drained nearly three minutes off the game clock before punting the ball back to Cornell with 1:41 remaining. Out of timeouts, the Big Red began that drive at its 27-yard line but again moved into Caldwell territory quickly, with Wise finding wide receiver Wally Chang on back-to-back 15-yard completions. However, Cornell did not get much closer as time ran out.
Caldwell scored 13 of its 16 points in the first half, as quarterback Frank DeMaio threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter. Big Red junior Zach Glenn blocked Caldwell's extra-point try after the second touchdown, and Ryan Murphy ran the ball back 80-plus yards for two points.
Caldwell kicker George Escobar made a 34-yard field goal in the third quarter to extend Caldwell's lead to 16-2. From there, the Big Red did all it could to get back into the game, showing the effort and attitude Quartaro and his staff have emphasized.
Up next:
Cornell faces Penn at 7 p.m. next Friday, Sept. 22, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
