Ithaca Rallies To Open Season With 19-14 Win Over Brockport
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Ithaca football team (1-0) opened its season with a 19-14 win over visiting Brockport (0-1) Saturday. The Bombers rallied, scoring the winning touchdown early in the second quarter, then withstood a Golden Eagle drive that saw Brockport advance to the Ithaca 31-yard line before throwing an incomplete Hail Mary pass on the game's final play. Sophomore running back Sal Sulla (North Rockland/Stony Point) scored the winning touchdown – the first of his career and quarterbacks Phil Neumann (Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake/Burnt Hills) and Jason Hendel (Deerfield/Riverwoods, N.J.) both threw their first career touchdown pass.
The win marked the 31sat time in the past 35 years that Ithaca has opened the season with a win. The Bombers have won 14 consecutive season-opening games.
Sulla’s one-yard touchdown run 2:54 into the final period capped a 13-play, 64-yard drive as the Bombers regained the following lead following 14 straight Golden Eagle points. Sulla ran for a game-high 63 yards on 20 carries in his first collegiate start.
Brockport had four possessions following Sulla’s go-ahead score and got inside Ithaca territory twice but failed to score.
The Golden Eagles intercepted a Bomber pass and returned it to the Ithaca 40-yard line with 5:34 to go. Brockport drove to the 27-yard line; after a two-yard rush, senior linebacker Eric Toporoff (Montville Township/Montville, N.J.) broke up a pass on second down and senior linebacker Joe Gilfedder (Governor Livingston/Berkeley Heights, N.J.) stuffed Brockport’s quarterback for a two-yard gain on third down before the Golden Eagles threw an incomplete pass on fourth down.
The Golden Eagles held Ithaca to three yards on the Bombers’ ensuing possession but used their final two timeouts on the drive. Junior AJ Vallone (Northern Valley Regional/Haworth, N.J.), pressed into punting duty for the first time in his three-year career, pinned Brockport on its 27-yard line with a 47-yard punt.
The Golden Eagles completed five passes for 55 yards but were sacked twice – once by freshman nose tackle Josh Skowronski (Monroe Woodbury/Monroe) and once by junior end Skyler Schlenker (Hanover/Norwich, Vt.). Brockport completed a 16-yard pass that put the Golden Eagles on Ithaca’s 31 with five seconds left but their final pass fell incomplete.
Vallone averaged 39 yards on six punts; he pinned the Golden Eagles inside their 20-yard line three times, including a 23-yard punt from 27 yards away from the end zone that was downed on the Brockport four.
Toporoff collected five tackles. Senior cornerback Spence White (Sleepy Hollow/Yonkers), who recorded his seventh career interception, and junior free safety Josh Liemer (Horace Greeley/Chappaqua), who had two first-half interceptions, led the Bombers with six stops.
Ithaca used a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes to take a 13-0 lead. Neumann, who made his first career start, capped a five-play, 48-yard drive with a 30-yard touchdown throw to senior wideout Dan Ruffrage (Utica Notre Dame/Whitesboro). Senior Brendan Harper (Southside/Pine City) added the extra point
Ruffrage’s scoring reception, which was the 13th of his career (tying him for eighth on the program’s all-time list), was set up by an 18-yard completion from Neumann to junior wide receiver J.J. Crandall (Herkimer Central/Herkimer) on third-and-18. The catch was the first of Crandall’s career.
On Ithaca’s next drive, Hendel moved the Bombers 59 yards on five plays, with senior wide receiver Eric Breton (Shaker/Latham) catching a 42-yard touchdown pass. Hendel threw for 59 yards in the game with Neumann completing 16 of 30 passes for 194 yards. He became the eighth straight Bomber quarterback to win his starting debut; since 1978 29 quarterbacks have started a game for Ithaca and 25 of them won their first start.
Junior wideout Joseph Ingrao (St. Anthony’s/Nesconset) led Ithaca’s receivers with four catches for 66 yards. Breton and Ruffrage made three receptions apiece.
The Bombers open Empire 8 play at Salisbury (1-0) next week.
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