On His Shoulders

Reese took control when it counted (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics)


Game of the Day (Day 16)

November 10, 2001

Columbia 35 Cornell 28


By week nine of the 2001 season, the optimism that ran rampant at the start of the year was all but gone. With returning senior tailback Johnathan Reese, Columbia was supposed to make a run for the top of the Ivies.

But a very slow start nipped that in the bud, and midseason wins over Dartmouth and Yale seemed a bit hollow. Thankfully for Lion fans, this barnburner of a game on a cold Ithaca day provided a dramatic highlight for the season.

Cornell score first after Jeff McCall threw an early interception that Big Red star Kevin Rooney returned for a 22-yard TD.

But McCall gathered himself and got the Lions close with a 42-yard touchdown pass from McCall to Jarel Cockburn, (the extra point was no good), and then his understudy Steve Hunsberger, ran it in for a four yard TD late in the second quarter to make it 13-7.

Cornell struck back quickly, first with a quick drive capped off by a one-yard run by Evan Simmons to make it 14-13 at the half. The Simmons struck again early in the third quarter with a 69-yard TD run to make it 21-13 Big Red.

But later in the third, McCall found Doug Peck for a 46-yard touchdown pass and then hit Cockburn for the game tying two point conversion.

The fourth quarter belonged to Reese. First he ran for a 14-yard TD to make it 28-21 Columbia, but then he provided the real drama when on 4th and 4 from the Cornell 33 he broke away for a huge TD run and the single biggest moment of the Lions' 2001 season.

Cornell did score a quick TD with about five minutes left to make it 35-28, but the Big Red fumbled the ball away on their next possession and the game was over.

Reese finished with 140 yards on 29 carries, and McCall was 22 of 31 for 279 yards.