Cornell Game Notes

The Bulldogs emerged victorious on Saturday in a 30-24 contest against the Cornell Big Red.  Dudek scored twice on the ground, Alston added another rushing touchdown and Galland notched three field goals.

Lamar, Locke, Rouse and Tribble were all missing from the starting offensive lineup.  Dudek was clearly not at one hundred percent forcing freshman Spencer Alston to carry the load.  Alston was phenomenal gaining 120 yards on 18 carries.  Although Alston’s only listed at 5’10”, 185 lbs., he was a load for Cornell to bring down often breaking multiple tackles.  Reno and Lett found another needle in the haystack.  Jacob Hinish started at right guard with Tribble out and struggled at times with holding and pass blocking.  The pass blocking overall was not up to par and if it weren’t for Rawlings’ great scrambling ability, the Bulldogs would have been in serious trouble.  Run blocking was hit or miss with penetration killing many plays.  Klubnik and Shohfi had great afternoons amassing 100 yards and 91 yards receiving respectively.  Freshman Noah Aaron filled in for Locke and had two nice grabs.  Freshman Trenton Charles made his rushing debut, but was stuffed by the Cornell defense on his two attempts.

On defense, Henson and Dixon were injured early on in the contest.  Freshmen Kyle Ellis and Dathan Hickey filled in and performed admirably given the circumstances.  Yale played with a more traditional four man front that featured Kissel, Crowle, Matthaei, and Moore as starters.  Roman, Callender, Sampleton and Reid Nickerson rotated in at defensive end, while Keeler and Julian Fraser rotated in at defensive tackle.  Roman was the star of the defense on Saturday with 7 tackles, 1 sack, 4 tackles for losses and 1 pass breakup.  Moore had a much better showing this week as he kept containment and shutdown a number of Cornell’s plays.  Callender played sparingly indicating that he may not be fully recovered from an injury.  Freshman Reid Nickerson was a pleasant surprise as he generated pressure and made a few tackles in limited playing time.  His fellow classmate Noah Pope saw action and racked up two solo tackles.  The linebackers had issues with tackling in the first half, but played much better in the second half.  On Cornell’s two long scoring plays in the first half, Rodney Thomas took horrible angles on the runners and should have been able to track them down with the proper pursuit.  Despite missing two starters in the secondary, coverage was much improved from week 1.

Aside from one missed field goal on a long attempt and blown kickoff coverage, the special teams units were solid.  Galland will prove to be a difference maker in Ivy contests this season.