The Ithaca College football team continued its hot hand with a 13-7 nail-biter of a win over the Hobart College Statesmen on Sept. 27 at Butterfield Stadium.

The Bombers used their first offensive possession as an opportunity to break down the Statesmen’s defense. After multiple quality runs by sophomore running back Chris Scully, junior quarterback Matthew Parker rolled right and found a wide-open sophomore receiver Tian Murray for a 29-yard catch and run gain down to the Hobart 4-yard line. The Bombers struggled to punch it in with two unsuccessful runs by Scully, but after a holding call on a fade route, Scully capitalized to give the Bombers a 7-0 lead with 6:29 remaining in the first quarter.

Two drives later, the Bombers’ defense was not allowing many long gains in an exhaustive 10 minute 25 second drive. On fourth-and-1 Hobart sophomore quarterback Aidan Conrath took a quarterback draw up the middle that was stuffed at the line. The ball was ruled short of the marker, and the Bombers sideline exploded in excitement. Head coach Michael Toerper turned the other direction and held up his right hand in triumph.

The Statesmen’s next drive had some trickery immediately, with Conrath swinging left to set up a double pass. Junior wide receiver Andrew Mellis had his head on a swivel and dove to tip the pass away from an open receiver down field. From the Bombers’ 12, Hobart sophomore quarterback Jeremy Weiss subbed in and threw a dart to sophomore wide receiver Johnny Harding, who toe tapped in the right side of the endzone with a Bombers’ defender draped over his back. The Bombers headed into halftime knotted 7-7 with the Statesmen.

From the Statesmen’s 49 yard line, Parker slung a ball down the left sideline where he found a leaping junior wide receiver Nicholas Lang for a 29-yard gain to the Statesmen 16. The following play Parker went to the other side of the field, where he found a wide-open junior wide receiver Nicholas Matos in the endzone for the score. A wild snap prevented the Bombers from converting the extra point and the Bombers led 13-7 with 11:49 remaining in the third quarter.

Using the Statesmen’s focus on Scully, the Bombers called a read option, and Parker found open space, juking left in the second level and diving into the pylon. Unfortunately for the Bombers, a holding call in the secondary brought the Bombers back to the 21. After an incomplete attempted fade route, the Bombers settled for a 33-yard field goal attempt. Unfortunately for the Bombers, sophomore kicker Caleb Wandell shanked the kick left and the Bombers were left empty with 14:52 remaining.

Scully, who had 30 touches during the game, said the team wanted to build off of the run.

“We really wanted to establish the run game and get at least 20 carries on the run and build from there,” Scully said. “I didn’t know I was going to touch it that many times, but it’s really just one play at a time. Whatever they call you, [you] gotta go out there and do your best.”

After the Bombers were stopped on a fourth-down try, the Statesmen made their final attempt at getting back into the game. On second down, Weiss had junior wide receiver Marcus Peterson for a touchdown with a perfect pass down the left sideline, but he bobbled it and the Bombers survived. A few plays later, the IC crowd ignited for a fourth-and-4 on the Bombers’ 33-yard line. Yet again, Weiss found sophomore wide receiver Luke Hansen on a sit-down route for the first down. Fourth-and-4 came again and the Bombers’ defense finally vanquished the drive. Weiss tried again to go to Hansen on a sit-down route, but graduate student defensive back Sam Tourangeau was there to nail him down just behind the line.

Toerper said he knew it was going to be a challenge facing Hobart’s offense, but was confident in the team.

“We knew it was going to be a bend but don’t break type of day in the sense that we just didn’t want to give up the big ball,” Toerper said. “It was that balance between being aggressive, fit in the run and making sure we don’t give up a big one or miss a tackle when there’s nobody else there to help out. That’s the style of defense we play here. We know what our weaknesses are going to be, we know that they know what we’re going to do, but you’ve got to stop us.”

With two minutes remaining, the Bombers’ objective was just to run out the clock as much as possible. On another third-and-5, the Bombers went back to the well, with Parker rolling left and completing a pass to Matos to the sideline for the first down. All the Bombers had left was to run out the clock on a 13-7 victory, moving them to 3-1 on the season. The team gathered to smash an orange pumpkin in celebration post-game.

Scully said his thoughts during the final drive were to just put his head down and go to work.

“[The mindset] was just to get as many yards as I could,” Scully said. “I was obviously tired, I saw the clock and I was just like ‘a few more minutes left in this game, I just got to give it my all and get as many yards as I could.’”

The Bombers will next face off with the University of Rochester Yellowjackets at 12 p.m. Oct. 4 in Rochester, NY.