CORTLAND, NY – The Utica College football team lost an overtime thriller to host and nationally-ranked No. 25 SUNY Cortland 47-40 in Empire 8 Conference action on the road Saturday.  Utica kicker Thomas Woodburn (West Islip, NY/West Islip) forced overtime with the game-tying field goal with 1:19 left in regulation, but the Red Dragons scored the first touchdown of extra time and held the Pioneers out of the end zone on their ensuing possession to earn the seven point victory.

The Pioneers (2-2, 1-1 Empire 8) return to action on Saturday when they host Ithaca College on Homecoming weekend at UC at 1 p.m.  The game will be televised live across New York State on the Time Warner Cable Sports Network.  Cortland remains undefeated at 4-0 and improved to 2-0 in Empire 8 play this season.

The contest featured six lead changes, 87 total points and 1,045 yards of total offense between both squads.  Utica held the advantage in rushing yards with 169, while Cortland won the battle in the air, compiling 373 total yards passing. 

Utica quarterback Teddy VanGalen (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) passed for over 300 yards for the third consecutive game as he completed 24-of-40 passes for 351 yards and three touchdowns.  Freshman running back Malcolm Stowe (Coram, NY/Longwood) had a break out game, rushing for 155 yards and two touchdowns (both career-highs).  His 38 carries were the second most rushing attempts in the program's 15 year history.

Utica took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a Stowe 1-yard TD run during the game's opening drive and a 6-yard pass from VanGalen to Alex DeRusso (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) midway through the quarter. The opening score was set up by a Jerred Beniquez (Port Ewen, NY/Kingston) 67-yard kickoff return to the Cortland 32-yard line.

Cortland, however, fought back to take a 24-21 halftime lead on two Donny Davis touchdown runs, sandwiched around a Shane Cronin 22-yard field goal, and a 52-yard TD pass from Steven Ferreira to Jon Mannix.

Cortland's lead grew to 27-21 on Cronin's 37-yard field goal in the third quarter, but Utica regained the lead at 28-27 on an 11-yard TD pass from VanGalen to tight end Peter Mueller (Yorktown Heights, NY/Somers ) about three minutes later. The Red Dragons answered with a Nate Burgo 16-yard TD catch with 3:52 left in the third and Cortland led 33-28.

Utica put up the first two scores in the fourth on a Thomas Woodburn (West Islip, NY/West Islip) 26-yard field goal and a Stowe 4-yard TD run and the Pioneers led 37-33 with 9:09 left in regulation. Cortland answered with an 8-play, 77-yard TD drive capped by a Ferreira 10-yard TD run and the Red Dragons took a 40-37 advantage with 5:56 left.

Utica's ensuing drive was highlighted by a 42-yard catch by DeRusso to the Cortland 12-yard line. The Red Dragon defense eventually held, however, as Stowe's 3rd-and-1 rush from the 3-yard line was stopped for a 2-yard loss by Tom Hagan, and Woodburn made a 22-yard field goal with 1:19 left to tie the score at 40-40.

Cortland advanced to the Utica 35-yard line in the closing minute, but eventually settled for a long field goal try. Matt Green's 52-yard attempt had the distance but was wide left with 12 seconds left. Utica chose to take a knee and send the game to overtime.

In the overtime period, three runs by Donny Davis for a combined 18 yards set up Ferreira's TD scramble on 3rd-and-2 from the Utica seven yard line to give Cortland a 47-40 advantage.

On UC's overtime try, Teddy VanGalen (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) hit Gregory Palmer (Richland, NY/APW) for 12 yards on 4th-and-7 at the Cortland 22 to keep the Pioneers' hopes alive, but the next four plays resulted in a 4-yard run, an incomplete pass, a 1-yard run and the game's final incompletion. The Red Dragons stopped Utica when a 4th-and-goal pass from the 5-yard line was knocked away by freshman defensive back Isaac Hicks.

Utica's Gregory Palmer (Richland, NY/APW) finished the day with a team-high seven catches for 133 yards. Palmer, a senior captain, now has over 100 yards receiving in three of four games this season. Jerred Beniquez (Port Ewen, NY/Kingston) finished the day with a game-high ten catches for 103 yards and one score.  Beniquez became just the eighth player in program-history to catch over 1,000 receiving yards for his career and he now has 1,028 in three seasons.  He needs five more catches to become the eighth player in program-history with 100 or more career catches. 

Five players had at least 10 tackles for the Pioneer defense. Sophomore Derrick Sekuterski (Depew, NY/Depew) tied the school-record with 3.0 sacks and he also added 11 tackles. Senior Mike Sullivan (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) led the Pioneers with 14 stops, while Juwan Wilson (South Ozone Park, NY/Holy Cross) and Anthony Bierra-Anderson each made 11 tackles.  Chance Harris (West Henrietta, NY/Rush Henrietta) added ten stops to round out the double-digit tacklers for Utica.

All Utica College football games will be broadcast on the radio locally at WTLB 99.1 FM/1310 AM (ESPN Radio) by Dave Peroni and UC alum Ray Biggs.  Live streaming audio can also be accessed on WTLB's website, www.espnur.com.