Salisbury, Md. – The Ithaca football team (1-1, 0-1 Empire 8) fell in its first conference game of the year, 21-7 at Salisbury (2-0, 1-0 Empire 8) Saturday at Sea Gull Stadium. The Bombers play at Union next Saturday.

Salisbury drove 82 yards for a touchdown on the game's opening drive to take a 7-0 lead and the Sea Gulls never trailed. The Sea Gulls added another touchdown late in the first half.

Ithaca answered in the third quarter, a six-yard touchdown run from sophomore tailback Sal Sulla (North Rockland/Stony Point) narrowed the deficit to seven points. Sulla gained 55 yards on 22 carries.

Salisbury sealed the game with a long touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that covered 77 yards and took more than seven minutes off the clock. The Bombers threw three interceptions in the game, two of which came deep in Salisbury territory and stopped potential scoring drives.

Senior linebacker Joe Gilfedder (Governor Livingston/Berkeley Heights, N.J.) made a career-high 14 tackles for the Bombers and junior safety Josh Liemer (Horace Greeley/Chappaqua) tied a career-high with 10 stops in the Ithaca secondary. Other career-high tackling efforts on the Bomber defense came from senior Kevin Cline (Waldwick/Waldwick, N.J.) with nine, senior Chris Collier (Mount Mansfield Union/Richmond, Vt.) with eight, and junior Dan Cimino (New Paltz/New Paltz) and freshman Josh Skowronski (Monroe-Woodbury/Monroe) with seven each.

Junior quarterback Jason Hendel (Deerfield/Riverwoods, Ill.) was 10-for-24 for 72 yards with one interception. Hendel also carried eight times for 47 yards. Sophomore quarterback Phil Neumann (Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa/Burnt Hills) was 4-for-9 for 44 yards and two interceptions. Senior wide receiver Dan Ruffrage (Utica Notre Dame/Whitesboro) caught five passes for 44 yards.
Ithaca committed just one penalty in the game and totaled 92 rushing yards on 22 attempts.

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