ITHACA, N.Y. – The 64th Cortaca Jug Game lived up to all the hype, as always, but the nationally ranked No. 14 Ithaca College football team fell to No. 15 Cortland, 38-28, at Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium. The loss drops Ithaca to 8-2 to conclude the regular season and the Bombers will find out who and where they will play on Sunday evening as part of the NCAA Selection Show at 5 p.m. Cortland finishes the regular season at 9-1.
Ithaca received the opening kickoff but was unable to put together a drive and had to punt, which was a 53-yarder by Darren Brunner to flip the field down to the Cortland 10-yard line.
The Red Dragons looked impressive on their initial drive and marched 90 yards on 15 plays and cashed in on a 1-yard run by Jaden AlfanoStJohn. Cortland picked up three third down conversion on the drive and that was one of the stories of the game as Cortland finished the day 8-for-15 on third downs.
Ithaca answered with its first touchdown as Colin Schumm scored on a 1-yard sneak with 1:28 remaining in the quarter, which followed a 31-yard pass from Jalen Leonard-Osbourne to Julien Deumaga.
Cortland began the second quarter near midfield and chewed up nearly five minutes, which was capped off by another 1-yard run by Ashton Capone to make it 14-6 with 10:19 left in the half.
The Bombers were forced to punt again and appeared to get the momentum back as Zac Boyes was stripped on a pass attempt, but he scooped up the loose ball and threw a 16-yard completion to JJ Laap for a first down. Later in the drive, Boyes was intercepted by Derek Slywka and returned 57 yards down to the Cortland 26-yard line.
IC was unable to come up with any points off the takeaway as the Bombers fumbled the ball back to Cortland inside the 10-yard line with 2:51 to go in the half.
Cortland would move down to the IC 29-yard line for one final play in the half, but IC intercepted Boyes for the second time, which came from Ben Stola in the end zone for a touchback to wrap up the first half with a 14-6 score in favor of Cortland.
Cortland outgained Ithaca, 299-132, in the first half.
The Red Dragons received the second half kick and burned more than eight minutes off the clock on another 15-play, 90-yard drive to take a 21-6 lead. Cortland picked up three third downs on the drive and finished things off with a 6-yard pass from Boyes to Joe Iadevaio with 6:52 on the clock.
IC pulled back to within a score, 21-13, on the ensuing drive as Deumaga found Leonard-Osbourne for a 22-yard score with 4:23 left. Previously in the drive, IC faced a 4th-and-4 from the Cortland 48, and Schumm connected with Ben Marinaccio for a 26-yard completion.
Cortland once again marched down the field with five straight plays of over nine yards. On a first down at the IC 12-yard line, the Bombers were called for targeting, and on the next snap, Boyes found Cole Burgess for a 6-yard touchdown to make it 28-13 with 26.1 seconds remaining.
As the fourth quarter got underway, Ithaca pulled to within seven at 28-21 with 13:10 on a 1-yard run by Leonard-Osbourne. IC then converted the 2-point conversion as Schumm found Sam Kline. The drive got off to a good start as Schumm hit Marinaccio for a 41-yard completion and then Cortland was flagged for pass interference a few snaps later.
The Red Dragons seized the momentum right back and Cole Burgess returned the kickoff 72 yards down to the IC 11-yard line and AlfanoStJohn scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run on fourth down with 11:01 left in the contest to give the Red Dragons a 35-21 advantage.
The Bombers continued to fight as Schumm hit Kline for a 15-yard touchdown pass with 6:12 to go, which made it 35-28. The drive started on a 21-yard catch-and-run by Leonard-Osbourne and then IC utilized 10 more plays to cap off the 75-yard drive.
On the next drive, Cortland faced 3rd-and-8 from its own 28-yard line. The snap was botched, and Boyes had to scramble away from multiple Bombers to avoid a huge loss and wound up picking up six yards. The Red Dragons called timeout on fourth down and ended up picking up the first down to continue the drive. Boyes then broke off a 46-yard run down to the IC 12-yard line and the Red Dragons would tack on three more points with a 29-yard field goal by Mike Baloga to give Cortland a 38-28 lead with 2:15 to play.
Ithaca would fumble on the kickoff and Cortland ran out the clock in victory formation.
Cortland finished the game with 29 first down and possessed the ball for over 40 minutes to produce 512 yards of offense on 84 plays. IC racked up 350 yards, including 277 through the air.
Schumm threw for 224 yards on 18-of-26 passing and a touchdown, while Marinaccio had 90 yards receiving. Leonard-Osbourne finished with 65 yards receiving, 57 yards rushing and 31 yards passing.
Defensively, Stola had 17 total tackles and an interception. Jason Haber tallied 10 tackles with two for a loss, while Jonathan Koumas had nine stops on the day.
No. 15 Cortland Claims 64th Cortaca Jug over No. 14 Ithaca, 38-28
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2023
Nov 11, 2023