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Mike Welch

Football

Ithaca Football's 25-22 Win Over No. 25 St. John Fisher Is Welch's 150th

Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College football team forced five turnovers and defeated 25th-ranked St. John Fisher 25-22 on Saturday at Butterfield Stadium. The victory was the 150th career coaching win for Ithaca head coach Mike Welch, in his 20th season at the helm of the Bomber program. Ithaca improved to 6-1 on the season and is 4-1 in the Empire 8. St. John Fisher dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the E8.

The Bombers built a 25-14 lead in the fourth quarter and withstood a comeback attempt by the Cardinals. The victory snapped Ithaca's seven-game losing streak to St. John Fisher. Ithaca had four field goals in the game and added touchdowns from Ben Cary and Evan Skea. It was the first-career touchdown for each of those players.

A defensively-oriented first half saw just three points scored through the first 29 minutes. Ithaca sophomore kicker Max Rottenecker connected on a 35-yard field goal with 9:30 remaining in the second quarter. St. John Fisher drove for a go-ahead touchdown, covering 80 yards in nine plays in 1:41 and finished the drive with a 5-yard run from Cody Miller with 49 seconds left.

The Bombers answered before halftime as Josh Oliver returned the ensuing kickoff 53 yards past midfield. Ithaca advanced the ball 35 yards and it led to a 27-yard field goal by Garrett Nicholson on the final play of the half to bring Ithaca within 7-6 at the break.

Ithaca received the second-half kickoff and got another great return. This time it was Sam Carney who brought the kick back 88 yards inside of Fisher's 10-yard line. It led to a 1-yard touchdown pass from Tom Dempsey to Cary on third-and-goal to give Ithaca a lead the Bombers never relinquished.

Fisher drove to Ithaca's 21-yard line but turned the ball over on downs and Ithaca answered quickly as Dempsey connected with Jared Prugar on a 65-yard pass to go to Fisher's 14-yard line. Skea scored from 14 yards out on the next play and Ithaca led 19-7 after the extra-point kick by Nicholson.

St. John Fisher answered with an 8-play, 64-yard drive in 2:16 to get to within 19-14 with 7:14 left in the third quarter.

Ithaca scored on field goals of 24 yards by Nicholson and 41 yards from Rottenecker in the fourth quarter to extend the Bomber lead to 25-14. A late rally by St. John Fisher saw the Cardinals score on a 13-yard run by quarterback Tyler Fenti with 2:52 left. The Cardinals recovered an onside kick and started to drive, but a Fenti pass was intercepted by Bomber linebacker Will Carter with 2:10 remaining and the Bombers ran out the clock.

St. John Fisher's passing attack, which ranks 26th nationally in yards, was countered by an Ithaca defense that had two interceptions, two sacks and broke up eight passes. Cornerback Brian Garvey made a career-high 14 tackles.

Dempsey was 14-for-16 passing in the first half and finished the game with 20 completions in 27 attempts. He threw for 220 yards, his first-career 200-yard passing game, and connected on the touchdown pass to Cary. Nine different receivers had catches for Ithaca, led by Jared Prugar with 94 yards on three catches. Vito Boffoli had five catches for 34 yards.

It was the first varsity game for freshman running back Skea and he finished with a team-high 62 rushing yards on 20 carries. Tommy Padula had 16 carries for 57 yards.

Ithaca returns home to face Frostburg State at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2.

BOMBER NOTES

* It was Ithaca's first win over a ranked opponent since last year's 21-14 win over No. 7 Salisbury on Oct. 27.

* Mike Welch's career record now stands at 150-61.

* Garvey's 14 tackles matched a single-game high in tackles by an Ithaca player this season, as Jake Santora had 14 tackles at Union.

* The Bombers had eight pass break-ups in the game, the most in a single game by an Ithaca team since an Oct. 30, 2010 win over Utica at Butterfield Stadium, when Ithaca broke up 11 passes in a 30-6 win.

* Skylar Griffenberg blocked a St. John Fisher punt in the second quarter, Ithaca's second blocked punt of the season.

* A fake extra-point attempt run by kicker Garrett Nicholson was unsuccessful for the Bombers in the third quarter.

* St. John Fisher drove deep into Ithaca territory in the first quarter, but Carney forced a fumble at the 1-yard-line by St. John Fisher running back Cody Miller and the Bombers recovered the fumble in the endzone for a touchback.