ALBANY, N.Y. -- JoJo Uga ran for 126 yards and a touchdown and a late UAlbany interception sealed the Great Danes' 13-10 victory over Cornell on Saturday evening at Casey Stadium. The Great Danes improved to 1-3 while handing the Big Red a loss in its 2025 season opener.

Cornell nearly rallied from a 10-point deficit with under five minutes remaining, but late penalties and a turnover proved too much to overcome. 

Trailing 13-3, the Big Red offense came to life. Page directed the team on a seven-play, 51-yard scoring drive that saw him go 3-for-4 for 40 yards, all heading in the direction of Kurtz, while keeping it himself three more times.

The quarterback tandem of Devin Page and Garett Bass-Sulpizio combined to go 16-of-26 for 153 yards and a touchdown, with Page throwing the score and adding a team-high 57 rushing yards on 10 carries. Junior All-America tight end Ryder Kurtz hauled in six passes for 68 yards and the 6-yard score with 3:38 remaining to get Cornell within a field goal.

The Cornell defense was the story for much of the evening, limiting the Great Danes to 268 yards on 71 plays (just 3.8 yards per play), but was held on the field for 33:42 and gave up a late 43-yard score to Uga, who was captured in the backfield and broke out of it to scamper the rest of the way and seemingly put the game on ice.

Cornell's resiliency was apparent with the late comeback attempt, which featured a three-and-out defensive stand to give the offense the ball back down three with 2:32 left. A pair of short Uga runs against strong pressure led to a third-down sack by James Reinbold to force a punt. The offense took over at its own 30 and reach the UAlbany 37 before two penalties took their toll and Page's pass down the left side of the field was picked off by Jayden Estes with 1:33 remaining.

Joey Cheshire made a team-best 10 tackles, with Michael O'Keefe adding eight stops and an interception. Keith Williams Jr. notched seven tackles, including 2.0 for a loss, a number matched by Cooper Cameron. The physical Big Red unit that registered three sacks and nine tackles for loss along with O'Keefe's takeaway.

Alan Zhao got Cornell on the scoreboard in the third quarter with a 25-yard field goal to cut a 6-0 UAlbany lead in half. The junior is now 11-for-11 on field goal attempts in the past two seasons. 

A pair of field goals by James Bozek late in the first and second quarters sent the home team into the break with a 6-0 lead, though the Big Red defense did yeoman's work, limiting the Great Danes to 134 yards of offense on 39 plays. A pair of fourth-down conversions was the difference in keeping the Cornell offense off the field, as were Big Red penalties. The visitors were whistled for five penalties for 55 yards before halftime and eight for 70 yards in the game.

NEXT UP
• Cornell will open Ivy League play on Saturday, Sep. 27 when it travels to Yale for the 87th all-time meeting with the Bulldogs.
• Kickoff is set for noon from New Haven, Conn. on ESPN+.
• Yale leads the all-time series 52-32-2, though the Big Red has won two consecutive matchups between the teams.