Cornell Big Red hosts Columbia Lions
Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.), 1 pm

The Game Columbia and Cornell are meeting for the 91st time with the Big Red holding a 57-30-3 series advantage ... If recent history is any indicator, this game should not be decided until the final moments ... Cornell has made quite a habit of sneaking out victories in the final moments since 1999 ... Meanwhile, this season the Columbia Lions have won three times -- all on a game-winning touchdown pass in the final minute of the game ... And this should be no surprise ... Last year in New York, trailing 14-10 in the final minute, Cornell QB Mick Razzano (South River, N.J.) hit John Kellner (Evans, Colo.) with a 44-yard pass on fourth-down and then found Kellner again, for a seven-yard gamewinner with 25 seconds remaining ... Columbia was able to march back down the field and attempted a 41-yard field goal, but the snap was botched and the kick fell short, allowing the Big Red to hold on to the win ... Among the series highlights is the day in 1968 that Marty Domres took over, gaining 447 yards of total offense (an Ivy record that would stand for 13 seasons) in a 34-25 Lion victory ... It was Columbia's only win against Cornell from 1963 to 1971 ... In 1971, Cornell struggled to a 24-21 victory as Ed Marinaro rushed for 272 yards (still fourth all-time in Ivy play) ... Columbia All-America linebacker Paul Kaliades recorded 20 tackles, mostly against Marinaro, despite his left arm being taped to his chest to protect a separated shoulder ... The next week Kaliades ended Dartmouth's 15-game winning streak by kicking a field goal in the final minute to make it 31-29 ... The Lions were 5-2 in Ivy play that year with the losses coming by margins of three (Cornell) and two (Harvard) ... The radio broadcasts can be heard in Ithaca on WHCU (870 AM) with Barry Leonard and Buck Briggs and in New York City on WKCR (89.9 FM) with Phil Wallace, Todd Keryc and Adam Spunberg.

The Coaches Columbia Coach Bob Shoop (Yale '88) has his Lions in the hunt for a winning League record in this, in his first season with the Light Blue ... In the last 30 seasons, Columbia has had a winning Ivy mark just once (5-2 in 1996) and the Lions entered the season with a nine-game losing streak ... It is apparent that Columbia made a wise choice when it plucked him from Boston College, where he was an assistant coach ... This is the first time Columbia has defeated Princeton and Harvard in the same season since 1978 ... Cornell Coach Tim Pendergast (SUNY-Cortland '80) will be asking his defense to set up the offense this week against the Lions ... His defense has forced just seven turnovers this season ... The other 120 programs in Division I-AA have forced at least 12 apiece ... Cornell has moved the ball in this 1-7 season ... The Big Red has just one fewer first down (140) than its opposition (141).

The Incidentals Columbia has taken a liking to the YES Network visiting Wien Stadium ... Last year when YES televised the Lions' opener against Fordham, the Lions handed the Rams a 13-11 upset thanks to a game-winning field goal from Nick Rudd (Orinda, Calif.) ... This year, sophomore cornerback Prosper Nwokocha (Arlington, Texas) provided the late-game excitement by picking off two passes in the final moments -- one which set up a game-winning touchdown and the other which secured the Lion victory ... The 16-13 win over Harvard was Columbia's first victory against a ranked team since Oct. 7, 1995, when the Lions ended Penn's 24-game winning streak by a 24-14 score ... The Quakers were ranked 13th at the time ... While it was junior QB Jeff Otis (Chesterfield, Mo.) who came up with the game-winning 10-yard pass to senior wideout Zach Van Zant (Pacific, Calif.) with a minute left, but it was the Lion defense that starred ... The Harvard offense came into the game as the nation's top-ranked offense, averaging more than 500 yards per game, but Columbia limited the Crimson to 262 yards ... The was the least amount of yards for the Light Blue opponent in more than a year (Dartmouth, 251, Oct. 20, 2002) ... Besides Nwokocha, senior strong safety Stephen McKoy (White Plains, N.Y.) and freshman linebacker Adam Brekke (Houston, Texas) each posted a game-best 12 tackles ... McKoy had two sacks for 13 yards as well as another tackle behind the line and a pass breakup ... Offensively, Otis' effort was gutty ... Twice sent injured to the sidelines by Buchanan Award finalist Dante Balestracci, Otis overcame three pickoffs to complete 19-of-36 passes for 253 yards and the game-winning score ... With 2,163 passing yards and 13 TDs, he has moved into the top five in both categories in Lion history ... Before the season ends, expect only legendary John Witkowski to have thrown for more yards in a season than Otis ... Rudd kicked a 19-yard field goal with 3:52 left in the third to make the score 13-9 ... The field goal was his eighth this season and 14th of his career, which moved him into fifth and fourth for the two categories, respectively ... He also had six punts (37.2 average) with a long of 57 and two inside the 20 ... One of the interesting stories among the Lions is the one of junior tackle Michael Quarshie (Helsinki, Finland), who had six tackles, including a behind scrimmage stop on Clifton Dawson ... Quarshie didn't played football in high school because Finland has no high school football ... He instead played club football with the Helsinki Roosters before attending St. Peter's College, where he became an all-MAAC performer before transferring to Columbia ... That's right, he was a Rooster and a Peacock before becoming a Lion ... Cornell has headed to the Rockies for wide receivers as two players from Colorado led the way for the Big Red offense in Saturday's 26-17 loss to Dartmouth ... Senior John Kellner (Evans, Colo.) grabbed his 100th career pass in the Dartmouth game ... The catch was a six-yarder late in the second quarter ... Kellner also had a 43-yard run in the first quarter in the Big Red's first scoring drive ... John finished the day with four catches for 58 yards and now has 103 career catches for 1370 yards -- both totals keep him fifth on both career lists at Cornell ... Junior Carlos Hill (Northglen, Colo.) had his team-leading fourth TD reception of the year in the Dartmouth game ... He caught a 10-yard pass in the first quarter to score the team's first touchdown of the game before finishing the game with four catches for 40 yards ... Meanwhile, senior quarterback D.J. Busch (Santee, Calif.) is from California, but was a starter at Colorado State as a sophomore ... Junior outside linebacker Brad Kitlowski (Pittsburgh, Pa.) led the Big Red and the game with his 13 total tackles while classmate Dan Collins (Scotia, N.Y.) followed with 12, including five solo efforts ... Senior defensive lineman Ryan Lempa (Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.) and junior Mike McGinty (North Royalton, Ohio) each had a sack of Charlie Rittgers, with Lempa getting a one-yarder and McGinty setting him back nine ... Cornell's pass defense remains ranked nationally, checking in at the No. 16 spot, allowing just 156.88 yards per game ... That passing defense is also first in the League while the team's total defense is ranked second among the Ivies.