BUFFALO, N.Y. – Junior fullback Dom Sair (Huntington) rushed for four touchdowns and junior linebacker Bobby Somerville (East Greenbush/Columbia) made nine tackles and returned a fumble for a touchdown as Cortland, ranked 19th nationally by D3football.com and 21st by the AFCA, improved to 3-1 with a 42-13 win at Buffalo State.

Sair led Cortland with 17 carries for 64 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, 1-yard scoring runs in both the second and third quarters, and a 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. His four rushing touchdowns are one short of the school single-game record of five held by both Mike Bowe in 1980 and Dave Cook in 1984.

The Red Dragons' other scores came on Somerville's 9-yard return of a fumble that he forced in the second quarter and an Anthony Giuliano (Thornwood/Westlake) 15-yard touchdown run that capped the scoring with 8:30 remaining.

Somerville's nine tackles included 3.5 for lost yardage. Sophomore D.J. Romano (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) recorded seven tackles and an interception and junior Will Schroeder (Rockville Centre/Holy Trinity) made seven tackles.

Junior Hudson Woodward (Beacon) completed 9-of-16 passes for 122 yards, including four catches by Giuliano for 29 yards. Giuliano also rushed for 50 yards on four carries. Cortland outgained Buffalo State 364-150 in total offense, including a 242-33 advantage on the ground.

The Bengals scored on a 68-yard run by punter Oraine Allen after a low punt snap with 15 seconds left in the first half and on a Willie Hordge 2-yard run in the third quarter set up by a Cortland fumble at its own 6-yard line. Kenny Murphy completed 14-of-27 passes for 117 yards. Matt Pacana led the Bengals with 16 tackles and Kam Johnson made 11 tackles. Eddie Weiser finished with nine stops, an interception and a forced fumble.

Cortland's first scoring drive came after Buffalo State missed a 32-yard field goal. The Red Dragons drove 80 yards on 12 plays, including three successful third-down conversions. Sair's 3-yard touchdown run capped the drive and sophomore Marc Corrado (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) added the first of his six successful PAT kicks to give the Red Dragons a 7-0 lead.

Cortland finished the game with 14-of-17 success on converting third downs, while the Red Dragon defense held the Bengals to 1-of-13 on third down conversions.

On Buffalo State's next possession, Somerville penetrated the backfield and broke up a pitch by Murphy. Somerville recovered the ball for a 9-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead. The lead grew to 21-0 with 1:17 left in the half when Sair's 1-yard run completed a short 6-play, 35-yard drive.

It appeared Cortland would take a 21-point lead into the half when Buffalo State lined up for a punt with 31 seconds left. The Bengals suffered a bad punt snap for the third time in the half, but punter Allen took off around the right end, broke up the field, hurdled a Cortland tackler and raced in for a 68-yard touchdown and Buffalo State was within 21-7 at the half.

Cortland's defense held on the hosts' first drive of the second half, and the offense followed with a 51-yard touchdown drive to go ahead 28-7. Woodward kept the drive alive with a 9-yard run on 3rd-and-5 at the Buffalo State 46-yard line and later ran for 18 yards to the Bengals' 8-yard line. Sair scored from one yard out with 9:29 left.

A Cortland fumble later in the quarter gave Buffalo State the ball at the Red Dragon 6-yard line, and two plays later Hordge ran around right end for a 2-yard touchdown. The point-after failed after a bad snap forced the holder to attempt a pass.

Giuliano's 28-yard run started Cortland's next drive and Sair gained 13 yards rushing on the next three plays. At that point, a lightning storm forced a delay that lasted 43 minutes. When the teams returned, Cortland scored four plays later on Sair's 4-yard run. Giuliano scored the last touchdown on a 15-yard run with 8:30 remaining.

Box Score/Play-by-Play


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