Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College football team dominated both sides of the ball in a 17-6 Homecoming win over Alfred on Saturday afternoon at Butterfield Stadium. The Bomber offense put together three long scoring drives that each covered more than five minutes and more than 70 yards. Ithaca's defense held Alfred to just six points, forced three turnovers, and the Saxons held the ball for less than 22 minutes. Alfred entered the game averaging nearly 32 points per game.

Junior quarterback Tom Dempsey made his first-career start and led the Bombers to a win. He is the 10th consecutive Ithaca quarterback to win his debut start. Dempsey was 14-for-20 passing for 166 yards and a touchdown. Running back Rakim Jones had career-best totals of 31 carries and 170 yards. Tene Samuto carried 11 times for 50 yards.

Jones got the Bombers on the board on the second play of the second quarter. His six-yard touchdown run capped a 15-play, 82-yard drive that lasted six minutes, 57 seconds. On that drive, Jones carried six times for 43 yards including a two-yard run on a fourth-down play that moved the chains. Samuto had three carries for 22 yards on that drive.

After Ithaca's defense forced Alfred off the field, the Bombers took over again in side of their own 20-yard line and went on a nine-play, 83-yard touchdown drive to build a 14-0 advantage. The balanced scoring drive included five runs for 32 yards and four completed passes for 56 yards, and was capped by a 28-yard pass down the right sideline from Dempsey to Brendan Wojtowicz who beat a defender and dove inside the pylon for his first career touchdown.

Ithaca added a field goal on its first drive of the third quarter from 24 yards out by Garrett Nicholson to build a 17-0 lead. The Bombers went 73 yards and covered 7:06 on the clock on the drive.

Alfred's lone touchdown came on a four-yard pass from Tyler Johnson to Alec Ladonis with 9:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Saxons had two more drives in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, but the comeback effort was stymied when those drives ended with interceptions by Tom Scanlon and Jake Santora.

Santora led the Bombers with nine tackles including one tackle for loss. Skylar Griffenberg had eight tackles and two tackles for loss. Mike Vulcano had seven tackles. In addition to his interception, Scanlon forced a fumble in the third quarter that was recovered by Mike Sheldon.

Ithaca is 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the Empire 8. Alfred fell to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference. The Bombers continue conference play Oct. 19 at Utica.

BOMBER NOTES

* Ithaca's 214 team rushing yards was its highest rushing total in a game since opening the 2012 season with 333 rushing yards at Moravian, a span of 13 games.

* Four Bomber receivers each caught three passes – Vito Boffoli (42 yards), Joel Lynch (33 yards), Chris Bauer (31 yards) and Steve DelMoro (19 yards).

* With two more interceptions today, by Tom Scanlon and Jake Santora, Ithaca has intercepted at least one pass in 11 of its last 15 games with a total of 18 interceptions over that streak.

* The Bombers missed on three field-goal attempts in the game, but connected on Nicholson's 24-yarder in the third quarter. Ithaca entered the game 6-for-6 on field-goal attempts this season.

* Ithaca punted just twice in the contest and had no turnovers.

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