November 11, 2006. The Cortland State Red Dragons defeated Ithaca College 23-20 in overtime Saturday to capture the Cortaca Jug. Junior kicker Matthew Mintz kicked a career long 40-yard field goal in overtime to give Cortland the victory. It was the second consecutive season the Cortaca Jug was decided in overtime. Cortland has won the Cortaca Jug four times in the last five seasons.

An estimated 9700 fans braved a steady rain to witness another Cortaca classic. The game remained scoreless until midway through the first quarter. The Cortland defense forced an Ithaca College punt from just shy of midfield. Stef Sair grabbed the punt for Cortland and returned the punt 31 yards down to the Ithaca 45-yard line. A personal foul at the end of the play moved the football to the Bombers' 30-yard line. After a short run on first down, senior quarterback Brian Shea delivered a perfect throw to Drew Lascari running a post pattern. Lascari caught the ball in stride to score a 28-yard touchdown. The huge play put Cortland ahead 7-0, and also established that Cortland would be a threat to throw the football against Ithaca. Shea, the third quarterback to start this season for Cortland, was playing for injured quarterbacks Alex Smith and Ray Miles.

The Ithaca College Bombers answered back immediately with a well executed 10-play 80-yard drive. Sophomore quarterback Dan Juvan completed all 4 of his pass attempts including a key 19-yard strike to tight end Mike Oertel. Oertel rumbled down to the Cortland 26-yard line to give Ithaca a first down. Senior running back Jamie Donovan took over at this point accounting for 20 of the last 26 yards. Donovan took the hand-off 4 yards over left tackle on second and goal to tie the score at 7-7.

Early in the second quarter Shea threw down field in the direction of wide receiver Anthony Morat. The pass appeared to get away from Shea and was intercepted by Ithaca's Charlie Stephens at the Ithaca 46-yard line. Stephens turned the ball up field and returned the interception 8 yards to the Cortland 46. Ithaca's Jamie Donovan got outside left for a 12-yard run on Ithaca's first play back on offense. A 14-yard run by Juvan took the ball down to the Cortland 5-yard line. But the Cortland defense got a sack from Rich Coyne, stuffed a run by Justin Kulp, and forced an incomplete pass. Ithaca settled for a Brett Kitenplon 26-yard field goal to take a 10-7 lead.

Late in the second quarter disaster struck the Cortland offense again. Brian Shea scrambled 10-yards and suffered a leg injury at the end of the play. Shea had to be helped from the field, becoming the third Red Dragons quarterback to be injured. Freshman Sean Pratt came in at quarterback, while everyone from the team mascot to the cheerleading team was told to warm up should Pratt go down. The game remained fixed at 10-7 when Cortland took possession at the 50-yard line with 47 second remaining before half-time. Pratt started the drive with a 7-yard completion to Matt Rickert. After a time-out Pratt hit Anthony Morat for a 13-yard completion down to the Ithaca 30-yard line. Another Pratt completion to Morat went for 9 yards down to the Ithaca 21-yard line. Cortland called timeout with 12 seconds remaining. Junior kicker Matthew Mintz blasted a 38-yard field goal through the uprights to send the game into half-time tied at 10-10.

The third quarter opened with a big play from the Bombers. Kelly Gordon took the kickoff at the 11-yard line, found a seam, and got free down the left sideline. Gordon cut back across the field and dove into the corner of the end zone for an 89-yard kickoff return touchdown. The Bombers fans celebrated as Ithaca grabbed a 17-10 lead and took over momentum.

The defenses stepped up for both teams and kept the score from changing for the next several minutes. Midway through the third quarter Cortland linebacker Dave D'Aurelio put a rush on Juvan. Juvan threw the ball down the Ithaca sideline to avoid a sack, but Cortland's Matt Berman intercepted the pass at the Red Dragon 49-yard line and returned the ball 21 yards to the Ithaca 30.

Sean Pratt completed a clutch third down pass to Drew Lascari for 9 yards. The pass play gave Cortland a first down at the Ithaca 13-yard line. The drive stalled at the Ithaca 6-yard line, and Cortland settled for a Mintz 23-yard field goal to pull within 17-13.

A clear trend was emerging in the second half. The Ithaca College offense was unable to move the football against the Cortland State defense. The next 2 Ithaca possessions went 3-and-out. The question was whether or not freshman Sean Pratt and the Cortland offense could score against the Bombers. With 8:37 remaining in the football game and Ithaca still ahead by 4, Cortland started a drive at its own 20-yard line. Pratt rolled out right and ran the ball 10 yards for a first down. Matt Rickert took the next hand-off and bulled his way for 14 yards. Then on second down and 5 yards to go at the Cortland 49-yard line, Pratt threw long for Mike Lane. Lane skied for a 34-yard reception while not allowing the defender to wrestle the ball away. With the ball on the Ithaca 17-yard line, Cortland shot itself in the foot. An illegal block and a false start moved the football back to the 32-yard line. After a 2-yard rush by Rickert, Pratt fired a 16-yard completion to Anthony Morat. On third down and 7 yards to go from the Ithaca 14-yard line, Pratt handed off to Rickert. Rickert threw a halfback pass to Dave Freglette who caught the ball at the 2-yard line and muscled his way into the end zone. Cortland took a 20-17 lead with just over 5 minutes remaining.

A squib kick by Jeffrey Lang was returned 14 yards by Justin Kulp to the Ithaca 40-yard line. The Bombers went to work against a fired up Cortland defense. A 9-yard second down run by Donovan moved the football into Cortland territory. A 7-yard run by Donovan followed by a 4-yard scramble by Juvan gave Ithaca a first down at the Cortland 37-yard line. Facing third down and 11 yards to go, Juvan completed a clutch pass to Kelly Gordon to give Ithaca a first down at the Cortland 23-yard line. The clock ran inside of 2 minutes to play.

On the next play Juvan hit Brian Weverbergh for 17 yards inside the Cortland 10. Cortland's Matt Berman hit Weverbergh hard on the sidelines causing a fumble. However the Bombers alertly covered the football at the Cortland 12-yard line to avoid a game clinching turnover.

With its back to the wall, the Cortland defense needed to step up. Juvan's first down pass was incomplete for Mike Oertel, and nearly intercepted near the goal line. On second down Matt Montpetit wrapped up Donovan after only 2 yards. Juvan's third down pass for Kelly Gordon was defended by Bill Hauser and fell incomplete. Brett Kitenblom came out with 41 seconds to play and narrowly converted a 27-yard field goal to tie the score at 20-20.

Cortland ran out the clock after the kickoff to send the game into overtime. Not only were Cortland and Ithaca headed into OT for the second consecutive season, Cortland was headed into OT for the second consecutive week. Cortland won the coin toss and elected to go on defense first. Ithaca chose to move toward the south endzone. Ithaca's first play went nowhere when Bill Hauser brought Jamie Donovan down after a 1-yard run. On second down and 9 yards to go from the Cortland 24-yard line, Hauser intercepted Juvan at the 23-yard line. Hauser took off down the Cortland sideline for 23 yards before being tackled by Juvan to save the game for Ithaca.

Cortland took over possession knowing any score would win the football game. On first down Pratt rolled out right on what appeared to be a designed keeper. The Bombers were ready for it and Pratt was forced to throw the football away. On second down Pratt fired a 4-yard completion to Mike Lane at the Ithaca 21-yard line. Matt Rickert was stuffed for a 1-yard loss on third down. On fourth down Matthew Mintz was called on to try to win the game. With the fans screaming, Mintz nailed a career-long 40-yard field goal which had plenty of distance. Cortland rushed the field to celebrate another thrilling victory over Ithaca, 23-20 in overtime.

The victory moved Cortland to 9-1 on the season. Ithaca ended its season at 7-3 and has elected not to compete in the ECAC playoffs.

The Cortland defense held the high powered Ithaca offense to 238 offensive yards. Adam Haas had 10 tackles, 1.5 for losses. Bill Hauser had 9 tackles, a pass breakup, and a key interception in overtime which may have won Cortland the game. Sean Pratt completed 11 of 17 passes for 125 yards. Drew Lascari caught 6 passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Mintz was perfect in converting all 3 field goal attempts, including a kick to tie the score at the half, and of course the game winner. Matt Berman had an interception, 9 tackles, and a forced fumble. Cortland struggled to run against a hard nosed Ithaca defense. However the Cortland offensive line protected Shea and Pratt, and did not yield a single sack.