Box Score FROSTBURG, Md. – The Ithaca College football team dropped its second straight game, falling 38-37 in double overtime at Frostburg on Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Stadium. In the second overtime period, Ithaca scored a touchdown but had its extra-point kick attempt blocked. Frostburg answered with a touchdown and converted the point after for the victory in its homecoming game. Ithaca is 4-2 overall and 3-2 in the Empire 8. Frostburg State is 3-4 overall and 1-4 in the E8.
 
Frostburg had the opening possession in overtime and scored on a 10-yard run. Ithaca took its possession in overtime and used three straight running plays to move 24 yards on three Tristan Brown carries. On first-and-goal, a play-action pass from Tom Dempsey to Mike Lopez got Ithaca into the endzone and Garrett Nicholson added the extra point to tie the score at 31-31.
 
Ithaca had possession to start the second overtime period and converted two third downs, including a touchdown pass from Dempsey to Vito Boffoli, but Nicholson's extra-point kick attempt was blocked.
Frostburg had two first downs on its first two plays to set up first and goal from the 1 yard line and then rushed in to set up the winning point-after try.
 
Tom Dempsey passed for 325 yards and completed 31-of-43 pass attempts with no interceptions. He surpassed 3,000 career passing yards with the effort and became the ninth Bomber quarterback to reach that career milestone. He connected with 10 different receivers in the game, and threw a career-high four touchdown passes.
 
On the game's opening drive, Frostburg picked up an Ithaca fumble and returned it for a touchdown. Ithaca answered with two touchdown passes in the first half to take the lead. Dempsey connected with Boffoli from 20 yards out in the first quarter and threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Hastings in the second quarter. Frostburg scored a tying-touchdown in the final minute of the first half and the score was 14-14 at halftime.
 
Ithaca scored the first 10 points of the second half on a 22-yard field goal from Nicholson in the third quarter and a 1-yard touchdown run from Brown early in the fourth quarter.
 
Frostburg scored on a 28-yard field goal with 8:51 left in the fourth quarter, and then drove 93 yards for a game-tying touchdown with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. Ithaca had two possessions in the final minutes of the fourth quarter but couldn't manage a winning score.
 
Ben Cary caught seven passes for 57 yards for Ithaca, and Andrew Tabbert (69 yards) and Boffoli (45 yards) had five catches each. Brown carried 25 times for 91 yards and a touchdown. Shawal Abdur-Rahman had three carries for 11 yards.
 
Malik Morris had a career-high 15 tackles on eight solo tackles and seven assisted tackles, and forced a fumble. Marc Recio made a career-high 10 tackles, including 2.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage. Ithaca's defense totaled 10 tackles for loss against Frostburg's speed-option offense.
 
Ithaca returns home for a noon game against Salisbury on Saturday, Oct. 25 at Butterfield Stadium.
 
BOMBER NOTES
 
* This was Ithaca's first-ever loss against Frostburg, as Ithaca entered the game with a 5-0 record in the all-time series against the Bobcats.
 
* Ithaca entered the game as the least-penalized team in the Empire 8 and committed five penalties for 60 yards.
 
* The Bombers held an advantage of five and a half minutes in time of possession and a 382-343 advantage in yards gained on offense.
 
* Josh Oliver had a 44-yard punt return and a 47-yard kickoff return in the game for Ithaca.
 
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