On Saturday, Cornell senior quarterback Jeff Mathews dominated the Red and Blue in his final college game, throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for another during the Big Red’s 42-41 win.
Credit: Joshua NgIt happened again.
Again, the Penn football team was left for dead against a high-powered offense late in the game.
Again, the Red and Blue sprang to life and put forth a thrilling comeback.
And again, they came up painfully short.
The Quakers very nearly erased a 21-point fourth quarter deficit, but kicker Connor Loftus’ potential game-tying extra point was blocked by Cornell linebacker Tre’ Minor, as the Big Red prevailed on Senior Day, 42-41.
For much of the game, it appeared as if Penn (4-6, 3-4 Ivy) was going to get run out of Franklin Field — again — by Cornell (3-7, 2-5) quarterback Jeff Mathews, who put on a show.
With scouts from the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers watching, the Ivy League’s all-time leading passer used a mix of bubble screens and intermediate throws to carve up Penn’s veteran secondary after Penn jumped out to an early 21-7 lead.
He hit wide receiver Lucas Shapiro for a four-yard strike in the back of the end zone to draw the Big Red within seven just before the end of the half, starting a streak of 35 unanswered points for Cornell.
Touchdown passes to running back Luke Hagy sandwiched an Ahmad Avery recovery of a blocked Max Kurucar punt in the end zone and a one-yard scoring plunge from Mathews, and once the signal-caller hit Hagy in the corner of the end zone for an eight-yard strike to make the score 42-21, it appeared the rout was on.
But after coach Al Bagnoli pulled an ineffective Ryan Becker for freshman quarterback Alek Torgerson, everything changed.
In his first action of the year, Torgerson — who was competing for the punting job in the preseason — led the Red and Blue offense on some of its best drives of the year, hitting Cam Countryman and Ty Taylor for touchdown passes to cut Cornell’s lead to 42-35.
“We were looking for a spark,” Bagnoli said. “He acquitted himself very well and put us in a position where we had a chance to pull one out when maybe it didn’t look that way 15 minutes earlier.”
After Loftus’ onside kick attempt was recovered by the Big Red with 2:51 left, Penn desperately needed a stop to have any chance at winning. It got one — and then some.
Mathews dropped back one final time to try and convert a game-clinching third-and-19. His pass went right into the chest of Penn senior defensive end Sam Chwarzynski, who rumbled 39 yards for what appeared to be a game-tying touchdown that sent the disappointingly sparse Franklin Field crowd into a frenzy.
But as Loftus lined up for what should have been an afterthought extra point, Minor burst through the middle and sent Penn’s emotional roller coaster crashing down as he got a hand on the ball and sent it right back at the junior kicker.
“When I ran on the field, I was like: ‘We have to get this [kick], we have to get this,’” Minor said. “And it just all came to fruition on that last play.”
“[The interception] would have been a lot more important if we had won,” an emotional Chwarzynski said. “I’d happily trade any of the individual stats for a win.”
Saturday’s game ran the gamut of emotions for both the Quakers and the Big Red, who bid adieu to stellar senior quarterbacks.
“I’m thankful to be in this situation,” said a beaming Mathews, who finished the game with 467 passing yards on 33 completions. “And hopefully leave [the program] in a better shape then when [the seniors] found it.”
Penn’s fifth-year senior Billy Ragone got the chance to lead one final opening drive, completing his only pass to wideout Ryan Mitchell to surpass 5,000 career passing yards before giving way to Becker.
“It’s fitting,” Bagnoli said. “[Billy’s] meant so much to the program … we wanted him to go out on a positive note and get his accolades.”
And as the dust settles and emotions subside, Bagnoli will now have to go back to the drawing board to work on retooling a program that now stands to lose so many championship contributors.
“We’ve got to show a lot of improvement,” he said. “I don’t think we achieved as much as we are capable of achieving.
“I’m certainly not happy where the program is right now.”
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