Box Score ITHACA, N.Y. – Buffalo State took advantage of six turnovers and defeated the 13th-ranked Ithaca College football team 38-27 on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Butterfield Stadium in Ithaca. Ithaca suffered its first loss of the year and is 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the Empire 8. Buffalo State improved to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Empire 8.
 
The Bombers led 17-7 in the second quarter before Buffalo State ran off 31 consecutive points. A fourth-quarter comeback attempt for Ithaca fell short.
 
Buffalo State opened the scoring with a 76-yard interception return touchdown by Will Cheshire in the first quarter as Ithaca drove into Bengal territory. Ithaca responded with a drive that ended in a 32-yard field goal by Garrett Nicholson.
 
The Bombers went ahead 10-7 on the first play of the second quarter as Tristan Brown ran in from six yards out. Later in the second quarter, Ithaca scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Tom Dempsey to Ben Cary. Buffalo State tight end Edwin Young caught a 7-yard pass from Dan Serignese with 35 seconds left in the first half and Ithaca held a 17-14 advantage.
 
Buffalo State scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and then added a field goal early in the fourth quarter to take a 31-17 lead. On the first play of Ithaca's next drive, Mitch Thomas had a 26-yard interception return touchdown to give the Bengals a 21- point lead.
 
Ithaca scored on a safety in the fourth quarter when a snap sailed over the head of the Buffalo State punter and out of the endzone. Cary caught another touchdown pass with 1:04 left to finish the scoring.
 
Ithaca freshman linebacker Kenneth Bradley led the Bombers with 10 tackles. Safety Anthony Domenick had an interception and returned it 29 yards. It was the first-career interception for Domenick.
 
Freshman tailback Tristan Brown had 101 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown. Dempsey completed 27 of 43 passes for 356 yards. He threw two touchdowns with two interceptions. It was a career-high in passing yards for Dempsey, who connected with six different receivers. Vito Boffoli had eight catches for 130 yards and Andrew Tabbert had five catches for 100 yards.
 
Ithaca continues Empire 8 play next weekend with a game at Frostburg. It will be Ithaca's second road game of the season.
 
BOMBER NOTES
 
* Ithaca's defense totaled five tackles for loss, recorded by five different players (Kenneth Bradley, Marc Recio, Joe Ricotta, Schnayder Termidor, Dan Masterov).
 
* For the third-consecutive Ithaca game, the team with more total yards came out on the losing end. Ithaca was out-gained in victories over Alfred and Utica, and today Ithaca held a total-yards advantage of 459-288 but fell to the Bengals.
 
* Dempsey's 356-yard passing day was the sixth-highest single game total in school history.
 
* It is just the sixth time in program history that the Ithaca offense had a 300-yard passer (Dempsey), a 100-yard rusher (Brown) and a 100-yard receiver (Boffoli, Tabbert). However, it is the first time that Ithaca has hit those three milestones in a loss.
More than 40 members of Ithaca's 1979 football national-championship team were on hand at the game for Alumni Weekend. The team was inducted as a team of distinction in the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday night.
 
* Select individual inductees to the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame were also introduced at halftime. The induction class included Lisa Boyer '79 (basketball), Jennifer Nardone Cantelmo '98 (gymnastics), Bob Corran '71 (athletics administration), Ken Hammel '91 (football, baseball), Amanda Laytham LoPiccolo '04 (cross country, track & field), Paula Miller (swimming & diving coach), Lisa Black Pedatella '95 (volleyball), Paul Veronesi '72 (basketball), Dave Wood '79 (basketball).
 
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