SUNY Cortland Athletics

PHOTO: Cortland QB Brian Wild (#14) takes a snap during the 1992 Cortaca Jug game at Davis Field.


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 currently surpassed 42,000.

General Ticket Sales Web Site
Cortland’s 2019 Cortaca Jug Info Page
Ithaca’s 2019 Cortaca Central Info Page

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:

Red Dragons Beat Undefeated and Defending National Champ Bombers in Wild 1992 Contest
 
Cortland football enjoyed three very strong seasons from 1989-91 with a combined record of 26-7, two NCAA playoff berths and one ECAC bowl victory. The one down side to those seasons? Losses to Ithaca after beating the Bombers for the Jug in 1988.
 
Ithaca entered the 1992 Cortaca contest riding about as high as a program could be. The 8-0 Bombers had won 17 straight games dating back the previous October, including the 1991 NCAA Division III championship game, and hadn’t lost to a Division III team since the 1990 NCAA playoffs. Cortland, however, had something going in its favor – a 28-2 record on the friendly confines of Davis Field dating back to the 1987 season.
 
With an estimated 9,000 fans packing Cortland’s home field, the 6-3 Red Dragons held Ithaca’s offense in check most of the afternoon. The Red Dragons outgained the Bombers 333-222 in total offense, but that figure doesn’t include key special teams plays that kept Ithaca in the game.
 
Midway through the first quarter Ithaca’s Greg Darienzo fielded a punt and returned it 70 yards for  a score to give the guests an early lead. The Red Dragons tied the game with five minutes left in the second quarter on senior tailback Mike Degnan’s 1-yard TD run, but the tie was short-lived as Todd Konick took the ensuing kickoff 90 yards to paydirt and Ithaca led 14-7.
 
With less than a minute left in the half Cortland stopped Ithaca on downs and took over on its own 36-yard line. Senior quarterback Brian Wild, who finished the day 15-of-31 passing for 180 yards, led the Red Dragons’ hurry-up offense to the end zone. Big plays in the drive were a 31-yard completion to tight end Jeff Matthews, a 14-yard pass to Joel Grover (filling in for starter Steve Ellis, who suffered an early injury), and, following a sack, a 28-yard Ross Ricco reception to the 1-yard line. Fullback Bert Conklin plowed across the goal line with six seconds remaining, but the extra point failed and Ithaca led 14-13 at the half.
 
Cortland drove 85 yards in 16 plays for the go-ahead score midway through the third quarter. Kevin Hartman caught a 28-yard pass from Wild on 3rd-and-15 at the Cortland 10-yard line to keep the drive alive, and eventually Degnan scored on a 1-yard run with 1:43 left. The 2-point conversion attempt failed and Cortland led 19-14.
 
Ithaca’s offense got on track in the fourth quarter, but the Red Dragon defense rose to the challenge on several occasions. With 10:13 left outside linebacker Jason McCard stopped Ithaca fullback Jeff Wittman for no gain on 4th-and-1 at Cortland’s 41-yard line. That led to a Red Dragon scoring drive as Adam Perry made a 25-yard field goal with 6:26 left to extend the lead to 22-14.
 
On their next possession, Ithaca drove to the Cortland 2-yard line. The Red Dragons came up with a stop on fourth down, however, with 1:46 left and hoped to run out the clock. Ithaca limited Cortland to a combined five yards on three plays while using its final two timeouts.
 
Intermittent sun had turned into steady snowfall, and the surreal nature of the game continued when, after a delay of game penalty, Cortland’s punt from the end zone went out of bounds at the Red Dragon 8-yard line. Ithaca scored on Joe Fitzgerald’s third-down 1-yard QB sneak and the Bombers were within two.
 
As Ithaca prepared for a potential 2-point conversion and a probable tie game on the south end of the field, a glance toward the north side of the gridiron saw a wave of Cortland fans working its way toward midfield. Many thought play might be halted at that point, but instead Ithaca took the snap and Fitzgerald rolled right to avoid pressure from blitzing cornerback Tony Fruscio. The pass to the end zone was broken up by safety Jason Dudek, and fans swarmed the field in celebration despite 13 ticks still remaining on the scoreboard clock.
 
Once the field was cleared, Ithaca nearly recovered the onside kickoff, but once the pile of bodies was cleared it was Fruscio who had the ball. Wild took a knee, the fans returned to the field, and the upset was complete.
 
Degnan rushed for 71 yards on 13 carries. Dudek ended with five tackles and two pass breakups, along with an interception that set up Cortland’s first score. Outside linebacker Sam Owens led Cortland with nine tackles and cornerback J.J. Graham made eight tackles, including a team-high six solo stops. For Ithaca, Wittman gained 108 yards on 25 carries, but was kept out of the end zone for the first time all season, and Fitzgerald ran 21 times for 81 yards. The Bombers were just 1-of-11 passing for 15 yards.
 
“J.J.’s really tough on the corner,” Cortland coach Dave Murray said after the game to the Ithaca Journal. “When they pitched to Wittman or (Jeff) Adams, he’s the guy one-on-one who had to make the stop. And he came up with a big game for us.”
 
“It was a classic example of a team that wanted to win real, real badly, and did it,” legendary Ithaca coach Jim Butterfield told the Ithaca Journal after being denied his 200th career victory. “Damn the odds or anything else, they came out and really did it. I thought they beat us in every facet of the game, except the specialty game.”
 
Probably an hour or so after the game the crowd and the teams were gone, and all that remained at Davis Field as the last person left the press box were two moonshine jugs with the words “CORTACA” and “CORTACA II” painted on them sitting on a table. They had been brought to the field prior to the game by Ithaca’s Director of Athletics Bob Deming, and in all the excitement nobody thought to pick them up.

Cortland finished the regular season with a 6-4 record after a loss to Division II Southern Connecticut State the following week. The Red Dragons ended the year with a 38-20 triumph over Bentley for their second straight ECAC bowl win.­­­

Coverage Links:
1992 Box Score (PDF)
1992 Highlights (from Ithaca College Television’s Gridiron Report, with comments from Ithaca Head Coach Jim Butterfield)