Salem put on a show, as it always does. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com | More photos from Stagg Bowl 50

By Ryan Tipps
D3sports.com

SALEM -- The golden anniversary of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl blanketed the bleachers on both sides of the stadium in red.

With temperatures comfortably hovering in the mid-40s and no biting wind, No. 1 ranked North Central and No. 11 Cortland met on the gridiron Friday night. The field’s 50-yard marking was painted gold in honor of the 50th Stagg Bowl and decades of highlights of flashed across the jumbo monitor in the southeast end zone of Salem Stadium.

While the championship game spent a few years away from this venue, the return to Salem ushered in the big-game atmosphere and spectacle that this kind of game deserves. Red and white fireworks spewed forth outside the locker room doors as players poured onto the field. Video crews and photographers were sprinkled along the sidelines capturing every moment of drama and intensity. Two players from Wittenberg’s 1973 Stagg Bowl I victors (another red and white squad) assisted with the ceremonial coin toss.

“You couldn’t ask for a better outcome than getting to this point, playing in the Stagg Bowl,” said Brett Segala, the starting quarterback for Cortland’s 2019 playoff team.

Segala and most of the 3,381 fans in attendance spent hours in the parking lot before the game, tailgating and celebrating their team’s success in the season thus far. It was an enthralling reunion of former players and die-hard alumni from both teams. Grills were fired up, coolers were stocked, and car windows were adorned with supportive messages.

Walking through the parking lot meant dodging cornhole beanbags and transitioning between pockets of pregame pump tunes.

Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

Segala noted that Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick has long said, “‘It’s not just the team; it’s the program, the community, the environment.’ And you can feel it here today.”

While both schools have significant big-game experience -- the iconic Little Brass Bell and Cortaca Jug rivalries provide that -- this stage of competitions is uncharted territory for Cortland, which was making its first trip to the Stagg Bowl.

“It’s a little bit of mixed emotions,” said Rich Ward, a high school football coach and parent of Cortland outside linebacker Jake Ward. “I’m excited, and I’m extremely nervous. I want Cortland to put on a great show, which I know they will, but I also want them to come out with a ‘W’.”

North Central, on the other hand, has a lot more familiarity in this space, making its fourth consecutive trip to the championship game.

“It’s so nice to see it all come together, it’s refreshing, and this is really fun!” said Olivia Wegner, one of the two drum majors for North Central’s marching band, which performed during halftime.

The other drum major, Dorian Chase, said that the Cardinals brought more fans to Salem than they did to the two previous Stagg Bowl years he attended -- in Canton, Ohio, and Annapolis, Maryland. Salem’s open-stadium layout, he said, brings a noticeably different feel than those prior venues, which were more closed in because of their all-around seating.

The North Central band's woodwind section was well-represented in Salem. Photo by Christopher Mitchell, d3photography.com

The band took two days to make the nearly 11-hour drive from Naperville, Illinois, barely squeaking in an hour before the game due to a traffic accident that snarled traffic just outside of the city. They and their entourage traveled only a bit longer than did the Cortland fans, who had an almost eight-hour trek from New York to Virginia.

“I’m so proud to see that so many people made the drive or flew here,” said Chase, for whom the game is his last hurrah as a student before he starts his student-teaching rotation next semester. “It’s so good to be here to support the team. We’ve been working so hard, and we’re here finally. We just gotta do it.”

For teams that both have high-powered offense and defenses that can surprise, fans were eager to see how the day unfolded.

“I’m more nervous being a parent than I am being a coach,” Ward said.