ASHLAND, VA. - The Cortland football team advanced to the NCAA Division III championship game for the first time in school history with a convincing 49-14 win at previously undefeated Randolph-Macon College (Va.) in a national semifinal contest.
The Red Dragons (13-1), ranked 11th nationally by D3football.com, will face top-ranked and defending national champion North Central College (Ill.) (14-0) in the 50th Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl on Friday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. at Salem Stadium in Salem, Va. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU. In addition, Cortland's win over Randolph-Macon will be re-broadcast on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 3 p.m. on ESPNU.
Cortland is the first school from New York to reach the Division III title game since Ithaca won the 1991 national title.
Cortland's defense limited Randolph-Macon (13-1) to 278 yards of total offense, including 43 in the first half as the Red Dragons raced out to a 35-0 halftime lead. Randolph-Macon entered the game ranked sixth nationally in scoring (47.8 points/game), seventh in rushing offense (266.8 yards/game) and 11th in total offense (496.5 yards/game). The Red Dragons limited the Yellow Jackets to 89 rushing yards on 32 attempts. Jaden Martinez (Comsewogue) led Cortland with 11 tackles, Jack Winey (Lindenhurst) had 10 tackles, including a sack, and Luke Winslow (Lansing) finished with nine tackles, an interception and a pass breakup.
Zac Boyes (Buffalo/Kenmore West) completed 23-of-30 passes for 279 yards and three touchdowns. He set school records for single-season completions (245) and career passing yards (6,722) and extended his school records for single-season (39) and career (68) touchdown passes and single-season passing yards (3,671).
Cole Burgess (Greenwich) had 12 receptions, the most by a Cortland player in an NCAA playoff game, for 145 yards and three touchdowns. His 33 career TD catches is now the most in school history, passing his teammate, JJ Laap (Stony Brook/Ward Melville), who currently has 31. Burgess also tied the school record for TD catches in a game, which he previously accomplished twice along with a number of other Red Dragons.
Jaden AlfanoStJohn (Westhampton/Westhampton Beach) ran 16 times for 108 yards and two touchdowns. He's now tied for the Cortland lead with 44 career touchdowns scored (42 rushing, two receiving). Ravi Dass Jr. (Somers) returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter to give Cortland a 14-0 lead. The return is the longest in school history, and Dass is the first Cortland player with two punt returns for touchdowns (excluding blocked punt returns) in school history since the stat was first tracked in the 1960s.
Cortland finished with 443 yards of total offense - 279 passing and 167 rushing. The Red Dragons converted 7-of-12 third downs and both of their fourth-down plays. Cortland has scored 35 or more points in 12 of its 14 games this fall.
Randolph-Macon starting quarterback Drew Campanale completed 7-of-12 passes for 38 yards and backup Brecht Heuchan was 11-of-17 passing, all in the second half, for 151 yards. Nick Hale ran for 27 yards and a score and Holden Hodge caught eight passes for 87 yards. David Wallis entered the game with a team-high 53 receptions but the Red Dragons held him without a catch.
Cortland scored touchdowns on seven of its first eight possessions, including the Dass punt return. The Red Dragons drove 82 yards on seven plays on the game's opening drive, capped by an AlfanoStJohn 1-yard TD leap, and Dass' 83-yard punt return made it 14-0 with 8:02 left in the quarter. Burgess recorded all three of his TD catches in the second quarter - a 24-yard reception with seven minutes left, an 8-yard catch with 2:30 left and a 6-yard reception with 15 seconds on the clock.
The lead grew to 42-0 less than three minutes into the third quarter on AlfanoStJohn's 11-yard TD run at the end of a 32-yard scoring drive set up by Winslow's 20-yard interception return. The hosts got on the board when Cameron Chatmon ran for a 3-yard score with 7:20 left in the third, but the Red Dragons responded with a 14-play, 78-yard drive that chewed up more than six and a half minutes. Ashton Capone's (Saratoga Springs) 1-yard TD run finished the series and put Cortland ahead, 49-7. Randolph-Macon finished the scoring on Hale's 2-yard TD rush with 3:58 left in the fourth.
Cortland has avenged both of its losses from a 9-2 season in 2022. The Red Dragons won at Ithaca, 38-28, on Nov. 11 and defeated Randolph-Macon, which knocked Cortland out of the NCAA playoffs, 35-28, in the first round last year in Virginia.
Cortland Football Stagg Bowl Bound After 49-14 NCAA Semifinal Win at Randolph-Macon
/seasons/2023/boxscores/20231209_v81k.xml
2023
Cortland
49
Randolph-Macon
14
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 11 Cortland (13-1) | 14 | 21 | 14 | 0 | 49 |
| No. 8 Randolph-Macon (13-1) | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 14 |
Dec 09, 2023