After falling into a two-touchdown hole early in its homecoming game against Colgate, chances looked dire for the Red. Junior quarterback Devin Page had given up two interceptions, the team couldn’t manage to string together a drive longer than 25 yards and repeat the success of last year’s shocker over Yale.
The score tightened up during a dominant third quarter for Cornell (0-3, 0-1 Ivy), but, despite the homecoming-day hype, the Red lost its momentum in the final 15 minutes and fell 41-21 to the Raiders (2-3, 1-0 Patriot).
“The level of major mistakes was just insurmountable,” said head coach Dan Swanstrom. “We’re in a situation where the Big Red just keeps beating the Big Red, and we don’t really have a chance to win these games. I saw some resiliency and some fight, and somehow we got this to a one score game.”
Homecoming got off to a rocky — and whiplash-inducing — start, with possession switching three times in the first three minutes.
Page’s first play of the game, a long pass attempt, was intercepted by Justyn Toler, giving the Raiders an early head start on the Red’s 37-yard line. Thanks to a concerted effort by the Cornell defense, Colgate couldn’t advance and was forced to punt.
Just three plays into the Red’s next drive, however, Colgate earned another interception, this time on the 34-yard line. Jake Stearney launched a 27-yard throw into the endzone, which was picked up by Treyvhon Saunders to give the Raiders the lead, 7-0.
After giving up the pair of interceptions, Page was pulled from the quarterback position, yielding to junior quarterback Garrett Bass-Sulpizio for the rest of the match.
“Devin was practicing really well. He had some glimpses and moments in the first two games that I really liked,” Swanstrom said. “But the decision making [in the first quarter] was just not great. It put us in a 14-nothing bind almost immediately.”
Midway through the quarter, the Raiders got another golden opportunity; Stearney completed a 35-yard pass to Saunders to get Colgate close, then found Saunders again in the next play to double their lead.
Bass-Sulpizio made his first appearance of the game on the following possession, travelling 25 yards before relenting the Red’s fourth possession. At the conclusion of the first 15 minutes, Colgate led 14-0 and had advanced 127 yards (114 of which were passing) to Cornell’s 78.
The second quarter saw Bass-Sulpizio come out strong, with a quick completion to junior tight end Ryder Kurtz and a quarterback sneak putting the Red within scoring range. From the 13-yard line, Bass-Sulpizio threw a handbook pass directly to senior wide receiver Smith Doryn that led him right to the corner of the endzone. While the play was initially called incomplete, a review by officials resulted in the Red earning its first touchdown of the season at Schoellkopf.
“My job is just to help the guys around me move the ball and they do a great job,” Bass-Sulpizio said when speaking about his receivers. “They were ready to go, everyone on the sideline came up here like, ‘Hey, we got you.’ And that is exactly what they did."
While emotions were high, junior kicker Alan Zhao missed the extra point, keeping the score at 14-6 in favor of Colgate. The Red and Colgate would then both go four-and-out for drives of just six and seven yards.
The Raiders would not wait long to strike back against the Red, with Reed Swanson making a one-handed 33-yard catch to put them within striking distance of the endzone. Mason Mozo then received a short pass from Stearney, stepping into the endzone for the Raiders’ third touchdown of the game.
Not long after, Colgate’s Trooper Price logged a pick-six, intercepting Bass-Sulpizio’s mid-field pass and running 43 uninterrupted yards to the endzone. With the first half coming to a close, the Red was able to fight its way into field goal range. However, the Red unsuccessfully chose to go for a touchdown, resulting in the first half ending with the Raiders up 28-6.
Colgate hit the ground running, with Danny Shaban rushing 57-yards to get within 10 yards of the endzone within the first minute. Cornell’s defense didn’t relent, despite the early lapse. The Red forced a fumble on the third down, which was recovered by senior safety Jeremiah Lewis to give Cornell possession on its own 6-yard line.
Bass-Sulpizio hurled a 39-yard completion to junior wide receiver Brendan Lee to get Cornell back in field goal range, beginning the Red’s longest drive of the game.
The Red would make sure to take advantage of this play, after senior running back Robert Tucker lll rushed right into the endzone for a four yard touchdown. Zhao then secured the extra point on his second attempt of the game, cutting the Raiders lead down to 15 points.
“[Bass-Sulpizio] really competed,” Swanstrom said. “He fought. He got us back in this game. He got us in good plays, and he made enough good throws to really get us in the mix.”
Cornell followed up its scoring play by holding Colgate to just an eight-yard drive. The resulting drive took the Red from its own 16-yard line to a touchdown earned off a quarterback sneak by Bass-Sulpizio. Cornell then chose to go for a two-point conversion, which ended successfully, closing the gap with Colgate to 28-21.
The third quarter concluded with the Red outscoring Colgate 15-0, giving Cornell great momentum heading into a crucial fourth quarter.
“[The team] just needs to realize how close we are to where we want to be,” Bass-Sulpizio said. “We can look at the grand scheme of things and see that we're losing these games, but at the end of the day, we’re right there.”
Colgate opened the final 15 minutes with a touchdown, earned by a wide-open pass up the middle to Max Walters, disrupting the Red’s late-game dominance.
Down 34-21 with under 10 minutes of play left, the prospect of mounting a comeback looked bleak, but the Red was not ready to give up. Bass-Sulpizio and the Cornell offense marched down the field on the back of multiple huge plays. However, the Red would unsuccessfully attempt a fourth down rush, putting the ball back in the hands of the Raiders with just under 7 minutes left.
Cornell attempted a fourth-down conversion on its next possession, only for Colgate’s Kenny Langston to intercept Bass-Sulpizio’s pass and give Colgate the ball at midfield.
The game concluded with a late touchdown from Cole Fulton sealing the victory for the Raiders, 41-21, over the Red.
“We’ve got to execute better,” Swanstrom said. “We’ve got to block the right people. Let’s focus on just doing what we’re coached to do and see what it looks like.”
The quarterback battle drove the game’s momentum, with Stearney and Bass-Sulpizio both taking all or a significant portion of playing time despite typically sharing the position.
Stearney demonstrated superior passing in the first half, giving his team a significant leg up with 163 passing yards. Bass-Sulpizio saw immense growth after the half, logging 89 passing and 29 rushing yards in the Red’s productive third quarter alone.
The absence of Jameson Wang ’25 has hit the Red’s offense hard. In just three games, Page and Bass-Sulpizio have relented nine interceptions, while Wang threw 11 over the entirety of the 2024 season. The Red has averaged 18.3 points per game, a far cry from last year’s 30-point average.
“There’s definitely some throws that I want back, missing some guys on crucial downs,” Bass-Sulpizio said. “We started off the season 0-3. We’ve just got to stay together, because this is the time of season where teams fall apart.”
The game marked Cornell’s third-straight loss to Colgate, and its sixth homecoming loss in the last seven years.
Cornell is back on the road again next week, traveling to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take on Harvard on Friday. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m., the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Alexis Rogers is the sports editor on the 143rd editorial board. She is in the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts & Sciences, and she can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com.
Matthew Leonard is a member of the Class of 2028 in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He is the assistant sports editor of the 143rd Editorial Board. He can be reached at mleonard@cornellsun.com.
