SUNY Cortland Athletics

PHOTOS: Ryan DeCamp's game-winning field goal in 2003, with Drew Lascari holding (photo from Cortland Standard); John Babin's game-winning TD catch in 2013 (Ithaca photo)


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.

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:

Late Heroics Lead to Unexpected Road Wins in 2003 and 2013
 
“Throw out the record books when these teams meet.”
 
Sure, it’s one of the oldest clichés in sports, but good rivalries are usually those where either team has a legitimate shot of winning, despite the records they bring into the game. And for the last 30 years, the Cortaca Jug has had its share of those contests on both sides.
 
For Cortland, two of its more improbable wins over the Bombers came at Butterfield Stadium when many fans may have thought it wasn’t going to be the Red Dragons’ day. In both 2003 and 2013, Ithaca entered the game with an 8-1 record, while Cortland was 4-4 and 5-4, respectively, in those seasons. Ithaca went on to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2003 and the NCAA second round in 2013, while Cortland helped secure ECAC postseason berths with its surprising Jug triumphs.
 
2003 (Cortland 16, Ithaca 15)
 
Ryan DeCamp made three field goals, including a 26-yarder as time expired, as Cortland pulled off the upset. A junior, DeCamp had played his first two collegiate seasons at Division I Canisius College, but transferred to Cortland after the Golden Griffins discontinued football after 2002.
 
Cortland overcame deficits three times in the victory. DeCamp gave the Red Dragons the lead with one second left in the first quarter on a low line drive 28-yard field goal, but Ithaca scored a touchdown to go up 6-3 midway through the second. Will Groff, however, returned the ensuing kickoff 84 yards to the 2-yard line, and two plays later Chris Stalker scored on a 2-yard run for Cortland’s lone touchdown of the afternoon and a 10-6 lead.
 
Down 12-10 late in the third, Cortland was in punt formation on 4th-and-4 at midfield. J.J. Tutwiler, the Red Dragons’ quarterback and punter, executed a fake punt for a 27-yard rush, despite fumbling the snap initially. Cortland’s drive eventually stalled at the 3-yard line and DeCamp’s 20-yard field goal put the Red Dragon on top, 13-12.
 
An Ithaca field goal with 3:28 left gave the hosts a 15-13 lead after Stef Sair broke up a pass at the goal line on third down. Cortland started the winning drive on its own 33-yard line, and perhaps the biggest play of the game happened a few plays later on 3rd-and-5 at the 38.
 
Tutwiler, as he was being slammed to the ground, launched a pass to the center of the field. Receiver Neal Heaton Jr. and his defender both fell down, but Heaton got back up and made the catch for a 37-yard gain to the Ithaca 25-yard line. Steve Davis carried five straight times for a combined 16 yards to run the clock down to four seconds, and DeCamp put himself in the Cortaca history book as he split the uprights with the winning 26-yard field goal.
 
“You start preparing for something like this in the pre-season,” said DeCamp to the Cortland Standard. “It’s like shooting free throws, you have to stick with the same routine...you kick it just like any other game, except there are five times as many fans.”
 
DeCamp’s kick set off a rush of Cortland players and fans onto the field, and it made him some friends for life in the process. As the Syracuse Post-Standard reported, defensive end Matthew Ferreri grabbed DeCamp around the waist and hoisted him near the Cortland sideline after the game and said “for the rest of your life, anything you need, man.”
 
2013 (Cortland 28, Ithaca 24)
 
Three times – once in each of the first three quarters – Cortland took the lead with touchdowns against the favored Bombers, and three times Ithaca responded with game-tying touchdowns. The Red Dragons’ scores came via a Dylan Peebles’ 6-yard run in first, a 12-yard pass from Tyler Hughes to Joel Nunez in the second, and a 63-yard bomb from Hughes to John Babin in the third.
 
Ithaca took its first lead of the day on Garrett Nicholson’s 32-yard field goal with 9:24 remaining in the contest. Cortland was unable to move the ball out of its own territory on its next two drives, but the defense kept hope alive with a Matt Ambrose forced fumble in Cortland territory with 7:34 left and another stop to force a punt with less than three minutes remaining.
 
Cortland started its decisive drive from its own 25-yard line with 2:28 left. Hughes twice ran for eight yards, sandwiched around a 7-yard catch by Babin, and Peebles rushed for 11 yards to push the ball to the Ithaca 41-yard line. Hughes then lofted a deep pass down the left sideline. Babin outleapt his defender, caught the ball at about the 5-yard line and ran to paydirt with 1:08 left to give Cortland a 28-24 lead.
 
“It was probably the best feeling ever,” Babin told the Cortland Standard afterward. “Hughes just gave me an opportunity to make a play. It was one-on-one coverage, and luckily I went up there and got it to get the win.”
 
Ithaca worked the ball into Cortland territory on its final possession, but Tom Hagan forced a fumble that Ke’shaun Stallworth recovered at the Red Dragon 38-yard line to seal Cortland’s fourth straight win over the Bombers.
 
“I turned around and just ran as fast as I could and put my head straight on the ball and it popped out,” said Hagan to the Cortland Standard. “I didn’t even know what happened until I got up and everyone was screaming.”
 
Babin caught eight passes for 174 yards and two scores and Hughes was 16-of-24 passing for 251 yards and three touchdowns. Ambrose, in addition to his forced fumble, finished with a game-high 15 tackles and a pass breakup.
 
Coverage Links:
2003 Box Score
2013 Box Score
2013 Game Recap

2003 Highlights (Team Video, no sound)
2013 Highlight Reel (by Ithaca College Television)