BEVERLY, Mass. - The No. 18 Ithaca College football team took a weekend trip to New England as they visited the Endicott College Gulls on September 9 and came away with a hard-fought, 20-17, victory to improve to 1-1 on the season. Endicott is also now 1-1 after it put on a show with a dominant 31-0 victory over St. Lawrence in week one.
The first big action of the game happened when Ben Stola returned an interception 17 yards into the red zone on the second play of the game. The Bomber offense opened up their spread offense early, but it was Jake Williams inside the tackles who finished the job. Williams trudged ahead, scoring on a 5-yard rush to give Ithaca an early 7-0 lead a few minutes into the game.
Endicott's first successful drive came at the start of the second quarter. Aided by a 15-yard personal foul, Clayton Marengi and Anthony Caggianelli rushed their way within the 3-yard line. Cagginelli took three consecutive 1-yard rushes to grind his way into a tied game at 7-7 with 11:12 remaining in the half.
Right before halftime, Endicott put together the most extensive drive of the game up to that point. The Gulls marched 70 yards on 14 plays all the way to the IC 6-yard line. The Bombers held strong against the clock, only allowing a 25-yard field goal by Ryan Smith to close out the first half, 10-7, in favor of Endicott.
Ithaca received the second half kick and proceeded to run the ball 16 times for 69 yards during the opening drive, but the Endicott defense held strong and forced a turnover on downs after nearly nine minutes ran off the clock in the third quarter to preserve a 10-7 lead. On that drive, IC witnessed 33 yards by Williams and 26 yards by Jalen Hines brought the Bombers inside of the 5-yard line. The Gulls made two vital tackles for loss to stuff the rushing attack at the goal line. Endicott's Matthew Liccardi shot the gap, taking Hines down four yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Endicott stole the momentum and put together a drive of their own, collecting 95 yards on 18 plays. One of the most important plays was a 3rd-and-6 draw that Margeni stretched for a first down to put the Gulls into Ithaca's half of the field. From there, Margeni connected with Markys Bridgewater for the final blow, as he made two defenders miss in space to extend Endicott's lead to 17-7 with under 14 minutes to play.
A long drive to put the Bombers back into the game was temporarily halted by a 15-yard penalty to make it 3rd-and-22, but A.J. Wingfield found Sam Kline at the perfect time as they connected for their second 23-yard connection to keep the drive alive. A pass interference penalty put the offense on the 2-yard line where Wingfield was able to take it in for a score to make it 17-13 with 7:22 to go. The extra point was blocked by Endicott's Hector Johnson.
The Ithaca defense showed up in a big way with the game on the line on the next drive. Stola continued his stellar performance when he and Mike Blanchard made a huge tackle for a loss on Endicott's 10-yard line forcing a punt.
Wingfield and Kline's chemistry stayed hot the following drive. They linked up on three consecutive passes. The final pass being a beautiful 30-yard strike for the go-ahead touchdown, 20-17, with 2:06 on the clock. Kline ended the game with seven receptions for 92 yards along with this TD.
Endicott entered their final drive with all three timeouts and started at its own 20. The Gulls would march down to the Ithaca 31-yard line for the final play of the game, which was a 49-yard field goal attempt for Smith, which sailed wide right to give the Bombers a 20-17 win.
Both teams were fairly even in stats. The major difference in the game were the big plays. Ithaca forced the only turnover with Stola's interception in the first drive. Kline's 30-yard reception was the longest play of the game by far, doubling Endicott's longest reception.
Impactful players on the Bombers defense include Stola and Darren Brunner collecting 10 tackles each. Jake Connolly added eight total tackles, while Isaiah Couser finished with six tackles. Tamir Rowser recorded three pass breakups with five tackles.
Brunner also averaged 40.0 yards on four punts, including a long of 54 yards.
Ithaca racked up 303 yards of total offense, to 289 for Endicott. Wingfield threw for 133 on 16-of-23 attempts and ran for 30, including a passing and rushing touchdown. Williams was the leading rusher posting 78 yards on 15 attempts with a TD, while Hines had 19 carries for 58 yards.
The Bombers will travel to Alfred University (1-1) for their third consecutive away game. The Saxons are coming off a 34-0 shutout win over Juniata. Game set to start at 1pm.