After a tough loss in the “Cortaca Jug,” Coach MacNeill believes Red Dragons can end season on a high note with an ECAC Northwest Bowl matchup looming against St.John Fisher
(Photo's courtesy of Dan Padavona/Myself)
Q: The Cortland defense held Ithaca to 14 first downs and 268 yards of total offense. The Red Dragons defense fought throughout the whole game to hold the Bombers from breaking the game open in the second and third quarter with three fields goal from Andrew Rogowski. Cortland closed the Ithaca lead to 16-12 with 6:37 remaining. The Bombers answered with 7-play 67-yard touchdown drive that put the Red Dragons down eleven. From a defensive standpoint what went wrong on that drive that saw the Red Dragons give up their first touchdown drive since the first possession of the game?
Q: Late in the 4th quarter the Red Dragons were down eleven points and rallied to close the Bombers lead to 23-20. Alex Smith connected with Eric Hajnos for 36-yard pass play to the Ithaca 4-yard line. A 2-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Hajnos, and a two-point conversion pass play to Hajnos, brought Cortland to within 23-20 with 2:18 to play. Can you explain what finally got the Red Dragons offense going in the late in fourth quarter after the offense struggled to put a touchdown after three quarters?
Q: The Red Dragons seemed to be a 4th quarter team all season long. Cortland put together to scoring drives late in the game to close the Bombers lead within three. Can you explain the heart of this football team from leaders like quarterback Alex Smith to the wide receiving core of Eric Hajnos and Wayne Wheeler?
Q: The loss to the Bombers dropped the Red Dragons to 7-3 overall for the season. The Red Dragons will take on St.John Fisher on Saturday in an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northwest Bowl. What are your thoughts on the upcoming opponent as well as playing in one last game for the season?
The Cortland Red Dragons were defeated by the Ithaca Bombers in the 51st contest of the
“Cortaca Jug” in front of a crowd of 9,700 fans at Butterfield Stadium on Saturday, 23-20. Dan Ruggiero rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Andrew Rogowski made all three of his field goals for the Bombers. Graduate student Alex Smith threw for 208 yards and three touchdowns. Senior wide-out Wayne Wheeler had two touchdown catches. Senior wide-out Eric Hajnos finished with seven catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. The Bombers have now retained the “Cortaca Jug” three years in a row. With the loss, Cortland drops to 7-3 overall for the season as the Red Dragons close out their season on the road this Saturday with an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Northwest Bowl game against St.John Fisher. Head coach Dan MacNeill expressed his thoughts and opinions on last week’s loss over Ithaca in his weekly interview on “Into the Fire” on WSUC 90.5 FM.
Q: What were you emotions after the loss to the Bombers as well as your postgame speech to the Red Dragons?
A: The game overall was obviously a huge disappointment to lose such a big rivalry game. Everyone in our program looks forward to the match up against the Bombers and we want to win the game every year. I also had to remember with my emotions swirling from such a tough loss that I did not want to say anything under duress that I would regret later. I thought our football team played their hearts out; we just simply did not come out on top in this game. I told our team after the game to look at who we are as a team and realizes we have a lot of heart. Our football team looks forward to one more game next week at St.John Fisher.
Q: Cortland out-gained Ithaca in total offensive yard with 308-268. Ithaca forced four turnovers as well as outgaining Cortland on punt returns 77 to 2. Do you believe the essential reason for last week’s loss was the play of the special teams combined with turnovers that seemed to be too hard to overcome?
A: There is no question that turnovers and special teams play essentially cost our football team this game. The game of football is all about field position. We just gave up to much field position in this contest. We had one turnover in the first quarter that killed a drive with a bad interception. Our punt return team had a muffed punt that our defense did indeed end up overcoming, but that was play was huge in the sense of field position. The turnovers from interceptions and the muffed punt put points up on the board that really put our team in a tough position to win. At the end of the day it is very difficult to overcome mistakes like these and our team was not able to do it.
A: On the touchdown drive that you spoke of that made the score 23-12, we had two missed tackles on a critical third down reception that opened up the drive. The Bombers ran a bootleg on that third down and our defense missed two tackles after the reception. The bootleg was a huge play in the drive that put our defense in a tough position. We have enjoyed success on stopping opposing offenses on third downs in the 4th quarter, but we did not get enough pressure on that particular play. We just simply did not execute defensively. Our defense fought all game to keep our team alive in this game and we were proud of that. Andrew Rogowski of the Bombers brought his top performance in this game. He did not miss a kick. Our defense hoped to force Rogowski to beat us with his leg. Early in the fourth we elected to go for two points after a touchdown to eliminate the possibility of letting Rogowski have another opportunity at making a big kick. We felt as a coaching staff that the defense had done a great job, but obviously the players are frustrated that they could not hold the Bombers to a field goal or less on the touchdown drive late in the 4th quarter.
A: Our kids were finishing plays in the 4th quarter. It was just simply a lack of execution offensively in the first half. We had five critical drops, which would have enabled drives to continue. Every offense had playmakers that need to make plays. Every non-catch and turnover changes the complication of the game. We just did not simply make play offensively until the 4th quarter.
Q: The Red Dragons got the ball back trailing by three at their own 6-yard line with 1:09 left to play. After an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that moved the Red Dragons up fifteen yards, Ithaca’s Kevin Cline intercepted Alex Smith near midfield to seal the Bombers victory. Can you explain what went wrong on that play as well what Alex Smith saw from the Bombers defense that caused the interception that seemed to be in double coverage?
A: On the last offensive play of the game of the game for our team the receiver that Alex was looking at was open. Alex just simply overthrew him. The pass was a little high. At the point of the game our offense is backed up looking to find any way to make a play and there were a lot of “bullets” flying everywhere. Our offense knew there was a sense of urgency and we just came up short.
A: Without a doubt in my mind our football team had a ton of heart this season. Character is all about creditability. We had to overcome adversity this season more than once. There is a true understanding of what our coaching staff had to go through to find the right guy to step up after players went down with injuries. Our leaders as mentioned Alex Smith, Eric Hajnos, and Wayne Wheeler to just name a few played a big role on our team. There are many other leaders and unsung heroes to mention. Our football team was a pleasure to be around this season. It is a disappointment overall when you look at the season because our goal is to win every game. There is no such thing as an ugly win and a pretty lose in the game of football. We wish things could of went a different way in some games, but the past is done and over with. Our team looks to take advantage in the opportunity of playing one more game this Saturday at St.John Fisher.
A: The ECAC Northwest Bowl game at St.John Fisher is going to be a great contest. St.John Fisher lost to the #1 ranked team of Division III in Mount Union. St.John Fisher also lost to Alfred who won the Empire 8 conference over them in the head-to-head tiebreaker. Fisher beat Ithaca, 40-17. We would love the opportunity to play Ithaca again after last week, but we get the next best opportunity in playing a team that beat the Bombers this season. Our football team gets one more opportunity to put the football down this season and we look to end the season on a high note.
The Cortland Gridiron Report can be heard in its’ entirety every Monday from 6-8 p.m. on "Into the Fire" on WSUC 90.5 FM and also seen at Cortlandfootball.com.
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