Cortaca Jug on the Line

By Mike Warwick, Ithaca SID (updated Nov. 5)

Two Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association games and an interstate matchup of two of the decade’s top teams are on this week’s schedule, but none of them are the feature game in Upstate New York. Saturday’s Cortland-Ithaca game is the 57th renewal of what Sports Illustrated once called "the biggest little game in the country".

The "Cortaca Jug" traveling trophy that is awarded to the winner was originally donated by team captains Tom Decker from Cortland and Dick Carmean from Ithaca in 1959.

Four of the last five Ithaca-Cortland games played at Butterfield Stadium have attracted crowds over 10,000 -- at a facility that holds 5,000 fans. Even live television (the game is being broadcast by Empire Sports Network as part of the ECAC’s Game of the Week package) shouldn’t be enough to keep spectators away from this game, partly because fans have seen two of the rivalry’s most exciting games the past two years.

In 1997 Cortland posted its first win in Ithaca in 30 years by converting a 42-yard, fourth-down touchdown pass with 26 seconds left. In last year’s Ithaca win, the Red Dragons’ drive to tie the game ended with a fumble on the Bomber 15-yard line.

The past two games have seen 11 lead changes, but last year’s game (when the Bombers rallied from a 27-20 halftime deficit by holding the Red Dragons to 40 yards of second-half offense) was just the second time since 1982 that either team could not hold a halftime lead.

Another late rally this year could result in the first two-point conversion that either team has tried (the Bombers and Red Dragons are a combined 60-for-65 in point-after-touchdown attempts), although the Bombers have scored on an inadvertent two-point conversion -- when St. Lawrence blocked a kick by junior Seth Steinberg, long-snapper Jeff Erne (Ithaca’s starting tight end) caught the deflection and carried it into the end zone.

Both coaches -- Ithaca’s Mike Welch and Cortland’s Dan McNeill -- played in Cortland-Ithaca games in college (each captained his alma mater’s football team in the ‘70s).

Buffalo State and Allegheny have enjoyed great NCAA playoff success in the 1990s -- the Bengals have made six NCAA playoff appearances in the past seven years and the Gators won the decade’s first national title and own the third-best winning percentage (.875) over the past 10 years -- but Saturday marks the first meeting between the two schools.

The Bengals are venturing into Pennsylvania to play one of the commonwealth’s top teams for a second straight week. Last Saturday Buffalo State handed host Washington & Jefferson a 40-21 loss. Junior wide receiver Derek Baker broke one year-old receiving record and tied another; his 854 receiving yards this fall tops his own 1998 total of 770 and his total of 40 catches matches the mark set by Craig Dana a year ago.

Rensselaer’s 8-0 record isn’t the only perfect mark the team boasts -- junior place kicker Eric Byrne hit all five field goals and all 35 PATs he has attempted this year and has already broken the school's career FG record of 18. Byrne has connected on 21 field goals in his two-plus seasons. The Engineers have now won 10 consecutive games over two seasons and 23 of their last 25 over three seasons. The Engineers -- the only unbeaten team in Upstate New York -- face Upstate NY’s only winless team, St. Lawrence, on Saturday.

Saturday’s games also include rematches of last year’s two biggest Upstate NY upsets. Brockport and Rochester, who stunned College of New Jersey and Union, respectively a year ago, both take to the road to face their 1998 victims. Rochester’s shocking win against visiting Union last year knocked the Flying Dutchmen out of a possible ECAC postseason game.

Brockport’s win over TCNJ was just the second of the season for the Golden Eagles and came at the expense of a team that would go on to host a first-round NCAA playoff game. This fall the Golden Eagles are looking for their third cosnecutive win, having topped Thiel 33-21 last week. The win featured a 191-yard, three touchdown performance by Courtlan Green, helping rally Brockport from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit. The host Tomcats had a time of possession advantage of over 20 minutes. Pat McDonald became the fourth Golden Eagle to reach 100 career receptions.

Saturday’s games also include Hartwick hosting Mount Ida, St. John Fisher playing at Hobart, Alfred traveling to former Presidents Athletic Conference rival Bethany and Hamilton traveling to Middlebury.

Mike can be reached at mwarwick@ithaca.edu.

Back to D3football.com