SUNY Cortland Athletics

PHOTOS: Rocco Colucci scores the go-ahead touchdown in 1999 (photo by Scott Conroe); Justin Autera carries the ball in 2010 (photo by Darl Zehr Photography)


By Fran Elia, Cortland Sports Information Director

The 2019 Cortaca Jug rivalry game between Cortland and Ithaca College will be played Nov. 16 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with the schools hoping to break the Division III football attendance record of 37,355 set by Minnesota schools St. Thomas and St. John’s at Target Field in Minneapolis in September 2017. Advance ticket sales for the game have surpassed 39,000.

General Ticket Sales Web Site

Each game week as the big event nears we’ll be taking a look back at some of the top Cortland memories from past Cortaca Jug games.

Flashbacks from the entire series:
1988 Red Dragons Win "Upstate NY Game of the Century"
Botched Field Goal Turns Into Cortaca Jug’s Most Memorable Play in 2014 Red Dragon Victory
Red Dragons Beat Undefeated and Defending National Champ Bombers in Wild 1992 Contest
Cortland Wins Thriller at Ithaca in 1997 for First Road Win vs. Bombers in 30 Years
Cortland Pulls Off Two of Cortaca’s Largest Comebacks in 1999 and 2010
Red Dragons Work Overtime for Back-to-Back Wins in 2005 and 2006
Late Heroics Lead to Unexpected Road Wins in 2003 and 2013
Cortland's Three Largest Cortaca Jug Wins (1968, 1996, 2011)
Goal-Line Stands Lead Red Dragons to 2002 and 2012 Cortaca Victories
Cortland Wins Inaugural Cortaca Jug game in 1959

“Honorable Mentions” that almost made our list:
 
2015: Cortland won 11-8 at Ithaca to clinch the Empire 8 crown
1982: Cortland rallied from a 17-7 deficit at home behind TD runs from Mike Bowe and Dave Cook to win 21-17 to end Ithaca’s nine-game Cortaca streak, prompting one of the few photos ever of players celebrating with the Jug after the game

This week’s flashback:

Cortland Pulls Off Two of Cortaca’s Largest Comebacks in 1999 and 2010
 
Three times in the history of the Cortaca Jug game a team has rallied from a 14-point deficit to win. In all three cases, Cortland was the team making the comeback. This week’s flashback covers two of those wins – a 26-21 win at Ithaca in 1999 after trailing 21-7 at halftime, and a 20-17 home win in 2010 after falling behind 17-3 early in the third quarter. (The third Cortland comeback from a 14-point margin will have its own separate flashback story later this fall.)
 
1999: Cortland 26, Ithaca 21 (at Ithaca)
 
Earlier this fall we focused on two Cortland wins at Ithaca (2003 and 2013) where Cortland may not have been expected to win prior to the game. The 1999 contest falls into this category as well, with Cortland entering the game at Butterfield Stadium with a 4-4 mark while Ithaca was 7-1 and ranked 17th nationally.
 
And for the first half, the play on the field matched the expectations. Ithaca led 21-7 at intermission behind two Tommy Giorgio TD runs and a short TD pass from Brian Young to Jeff Erne. Cortland’s first-half score was a 3-yard keeper by senior quarterback Jeff Humble that tied the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter.
 
The game was televised live by regional channel Empire Sports Network in what’s believed to be only the second Cortaca Jug game broadcast live to off-campus homes (the 1983 Cortaca Jug game at Ithaca was shown as an ABC regional broadcast). At halftime, Cortland head coach Dan MacNeill, when asked what he was telling his team at the break, said he was telling the Red Dragons to prepare for the biggest comeback in Cortaca Jug history. And his prediction hit the nail on the head.
 
Cortland held the Bombers on the first series of the second half and then drove 51 yards for a touchdown. Freshman tailback Brinton Battle, making his first collegiate start and only his second appearance of the season, capped the drive with a 1-yard sweep. Late in the third, Humble hit Brian Girardi for a 29-yard gain to the Ithaca 4-yard line, and on the first play of the fourth quarter Battle found paydirt. The extra point, however, was no good and Cortland trailed 21-20.
 
Kory David’s interception on Ithaca’s next possession gave Cortland the ball at the Ithaca 39-yard line. Four plays later on 4th-and-10 Humble read an Ithaca blitz and hit Rocco Colucci on a short route that turned into the go-ahead 28-yard touchdown with 11:34 remaining.
 
With less than five minutes left, Ithaca drove 10 plays from its own 14-yard line to the Red Dragon 12-yard line, but the drive was halted and the Cortland victory was sealed when Ben Faery made a diving interception near the sideline at the 5-yard line with 1:09 left.
 
Humble finished 21-of-37 passing for 291 yards and a score and became the first Cortland player in school history with two 2,000-yard passing seasons. Girardi and Colucci each caught eight passes. Faery finished with 10 tackles, all solo, and a forced fumble in addition to his interception. Charlie Michelson led the Red Dragons with 15 tackles and Dom Narcisco had 13 tackles, a forced fumble, two pass breakups and a 47-yard punt return. David ended with 10 tackles along with his interception.
 
Scott Harrison, in addition to catching two passes, enjoyed a great day as Cortland’s punter. He averaged 41.1 yards per punt on eight kicks, four of which pinned Ithaca inside its 20-yard line. His 71-yard punt was downed at Ithaca’s 9-yard line in the first quarter and he angled a punt out of bounds inside the Bombers’ 1-yard line in the third quarter.
 
2010: Cortland 20, Ithaca 17 (at Cortland)
 
Cortland entered the 2010 Cortaca Jug game with a monkey on its back as the Red Dragons had lost their previous three games to Ithaca. Sophomore tailback Justin Autera helped make sure that streak didn’t extend to four, and in the process began what turned out to be a seven-year run of wins for Cortland in the rivalry.
 
Autera ran 37 times for 232 yards and two touchdowns and caught four passes for 23 yards as he accounted for 255 of Cortland’s 282 yards of total offense. The 232 rushing yards are still the most by any player from either school in a Cortland-Ithaca game.
 
Ithaca, which entered the game at 5-4 compared to Cortland’s 8-1 record, did most of its damage through the air as Rob Zappia completed 19-of-39 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown. The Bombers, however, were held to 19 net rushing yards on 26 carries.
 
Ithaca led 10-3 at halftime on Zappia’s 5-yard TD run in the first quarter and Andrew Rogowski’s 29-yard field goal on the final play of the half. Marc Corrado made a 26-yard field goal late in the first quarter for Cortland’s points. The Bombers’ lead grew to 17-3 when Zappia threw a 33-yard TD pass to Dan Higgins one play after Ithaca recovered a Cortland fumble.
 
Cortland caught a major break midway through the third when Ithaca punter Rogowski went to a knee to field a low snap and was called down at the Bombers’ 3-yard line. Autera ran in on the next snap and Ithaca’s lead was cut to 17-10.
 
Corrado connected on a 32-yard field goal early in the fourth to pull Cortland to within 17-13, and on the ensuing kickoff Chris Bright forced a fumble that Joe Aston recovered at the Ithaca 40-yard line. Two Autera runs and a Pitcher pass moved the ball to the 14-yard line, and Dorian Myles ran 13 yards to the 1-yard line. On 1st-and-goal Autera took a handoff and leapt over the line of scrimmage. The ball was knocked out of his hands, but it was ruled that he had crossed the plane of the goal line first and Cortland led 20-17 with 10:49 left.
 
Ithaca was unable to move the ball into Cortland territory on its final three possessions. D.J. Romano intercepted a pass with 5:54 left to end one of those drives, and Ithaca’s final series was thwarted by three pass breakups – two by Joe Lopez and one by Cody Allen. Earlier in the game Lopez extended his school record to six straight games with an interception. Autera sealed the win with three rushes for a combined 11 yards and a first down and Cortland was able to take a knee twice to run out the clock.
 
Allen led the Red Dragons with nine tackles and a pass breakup. Romano and Lopez each registered a pick and three pass breakups.
 
Following the game, Cortland awaited word from the New Jersey Athletic Conference office as to whether it was going to earn an NCAA tournament automatic berth. The Red Dragons finished in a three-way tie with Rowan and Montclair with 8-1 league marks, and the league tiebreaker came down to a bizarre “opponents’ opponents winning percentage” mark. Cortland won that tiebreaker and went on to defeat Endicott at home in the NCAA opening round before losing to Alfred the following week to complete a 10-2 season.
 
Coverage Links:
1999 Box Score
2010 Box Score
2010 Game Recap
1999 Highlights (team video) (new version - now includes Colucci TD)
2010 Highlights (team highlight video)