Football | 11/8/2025 6:20:00 PM
CORTLAND, NY - The SUNY Cortland football team capitalized on four Brockport turnovers and the Red Dragons claimed their fifth straight Empire 8 title with a 44-14 victory over visiting Golden Eagles. Cortland (8-1, 7-0 Empire 8) won its 33rd straight league game, dating back to 2021, and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Cortland, ranked 15th nationally by the AFCA and 20th by D3football.com, will close the regular season next Saturday at non-league foe Ithaca in the annual Cortaca Jug rivalry game. The 40-team NCAA tournament begins Nov. 22, with 24 teams earning byes into the second round on Nov. 29.
Brockport dropped to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference with the loss. The Golden Eagles host Utica next Saturday in a league matchup.
Brockport outgained Cortland in total offense, 336-262, but Cortland turned the Golden Eagles' four giveaways into short touchdown drives of 14, 32, 42 and six yards.
Cortland quarterback Mike Rescigno (Arlington) ran 18 times for 80 yards and two touchdowns and completed 9-of-14 passes for 100 yards and three scores. Ethan Gallo (Minisink/Minisink Valley), Joe Iadevaio (Massapequa/Plainedge) and Sam Cotton (Fulton/G. Ray Bodlen) each caught TD passes, and Gallo also ran 14 times for 50 yards.
Ravi Dass Jr. (Somers) returned a punt 76 yards for Cortland's final touchdown. It was the second longest punt return in school history, behind only his 83-yard TD return at Randolph-Macon in the 2023 NCAA semifinals. Dass, who entered the game as the Division III national leader with 20.3 yards per punt return, has four career punt return TDs through three seasons.
Aidan Lochner (Ravena/Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk) led the Cortland defense with six tackles, an interception and two pass breakups. Memphis Ferguson (Whitesboro) and Aden Wiser (Highland) also intercepted passes and Aaron Henry (Cobleskill/Cobleskill-Richmondville) made six tackles. Gavin Dandrea (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue) recorded a pair of 51-yard punts.
Isaiah Simmons led Brockport with 20 rushes for 125 yards and two touchdowns - a 1-yard run in the first quarter that tied the game at 7-7 and a 44-yard TD run with 2:58 left in the second to cut Cortland's lead to 20-14. Ben Gocella entered the game with a 71.3 completion percentage and five total interceptions, but he finished the day 12-of-26 passing for 137 yards and three picks. Nathan Williams caught five passes for 58 yards. Luca Friedman finished with 11 tackles and Nazhier Wilson had 10 tackles and forced a fumble that he also recovered.
Rescigno capped a 68-yard scoring drive in the first quarter with a 3-yard TD run to put Cortland up 7-0. Brockport tied the game in the second and then forced a Cortland punt, but the Golden Eagles fumbled the ball on the return and Jackson Cypher (Rochester/Brighton) recovered on the Brockport 14-yard line. Gallo's 12-yard TD catch three plays later made it 13-7, although the Red Dragons failed on the PAT attempt after a bad snap.
Two plays into Brockport's next drive Wiser intercepted a pass on Brockport 32-yard line. Cortland later faced 3rd-and-goal at the Brockport 19-yard line before Rescigno threw a TD pass to Iadevaio, who made a diving catch in the end zone.
Brockport had 4th-and-1 on the Cortland 44-yard line on its next possession when Simmons broke free for a big TD run to make it 20-14. On the ensuing kickoff, however, Brockport was called for an illegal formation penalty, followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, that forced another kickoff from the 20-yard line. Tyson Taylor (Middle Island/Longwood) returned that kickoff 55 yards to the Brockport 25-yard line, leading to Cole Callard's (Medina) 37-yard field goal with 1:07 left that gave Cortland a 23-14 lead. Brockport missed a 55-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the first half.
Cortland's opening drive of the third quarter ate up more than eight minutes but resulted in a missed field goal. The Red Dragons got the ball back, however, when Ferguson picked off a pass and returned the ball 13 yards to the Golden Eagles' 42-yard line. Later facing 2nd-and-4 at the 10-yard line, Rescigno threw a pass to the front left corner of the end zone. Cotton got turned around but made an incredible one-handed catch and was able to get his knee down inbounds to put Cortland ahead 30-14 with 1:09 left in the quarter.
In the fourth, a Dandrea punt pinned Brockport at its own 16-yard line, and after a run and a penalty, Lochner intercepted a pass and returned it 14 yards to the 6-yard line. Rescigno ran for a score on the next play to push the lead to 37-14. Dass' punt return came with 7:57 left, and Brockport mounted a drive that at up the rest of the game but came up just short after Cortland's defense held the Golden Eagles on four runs from the Red Dragon 2-yard line.
(Photo by Rich Barnes)