The sprint football team completed its most exciting victory of the season with a late-game comeback against the Penn on Friday. Down by 11 in the fourth quarter, Cornell was able to spark a comeback and force the game into overtime. Cornell, which lost to Penn, 20-14, earlier in the season, escaped Philadelphia with a 27-24 victory.

The Quakers opened the contest when the Penn tandem of quarterback Todd Busler and wideout Whit Shaw connected on a 62-yard touchdown pass. The two teams went without a score for the rest of the first quarter. In the second, the Red was able to put together some offense and would take a lead into halftime.

Kicker Alex Perilstein booted a 37-yard field goal early in the second quarter to make the score 7-3. The rest of the second quarter was a defensive battle until quarterback Elliot Corey led the Red on a touchdown drive in the final moments. Corey found wide receiver Upal Sarker for a 14-yard touchdown pass, and the Red had a 10-7 lead going into halftime.

“They scored on the first play of the game, but that was really the only thing they had going for them,” said junior defensive end Tim Kozen. “Our defense was stopping them pretty well. Our offense just scored at the end of the half. We knew that we just had to stop them in the second half to seal the win.”

In the second half the potent Quaker rushing offense struck for the first time, taking a 14-10 lead after running back Mike Bagnoli took the handoff 21 yards for a score. After Busler went out with an injury, backup quarterback Clarke Armaris took the helm for Penn. The Quakers took a 21-10 lead after receiver Raiam Santos caught a pass from Armaris. The Red defense would toughen up after that.

“They went up by two scores but we were just missing tackles,” said defensive end Michael Hernandez, who had two sacks in the game for the Red. ‘Their running back was shifty and they made a few plays. We changed up our blitz packages, changed a few things around. We knew we could hold them off and that our offense could get us back in the game.”

The Red offense came alive in the final quarter with some great play by the offensive line. Running back D.J. Schiavetta, who eclipsed 100 yards for the third time this season, capped off a 63-yard drive with a tough goal line run. After a successful two-point conversion from Corey to senior wide receiver Chris LaBerge, the score was 21-18. The Red took over with less than five minutes to play and got Perilstein within field goal range with :04 left on the clock. Perilstein knocked down the 33-yarder as time expired to send the game into overtime.

The Quakers started with the ball in overtime but were only able to muster a field goal as the Red played inspired defense. The Red offensive line dominated Penn in its overtime possession as the Red called six straight runs to get in the end zone.

“Our run game was doing great,” said junior lineman Patrick Dooley. “Everyone on offense knew when we got the ball in overtime that we were going to get a touchdown. It was a great win for us”

The winning score came when Corey pushed forward on a quarterback sneak and sealed a 27-24 victory for the Red.