After a long hard fought season two New York State college football power houses and bitter rivals squared off on Saturday in the 63rd annual Cortaca Jug game.
The game featured your 9-0 Cortland Red Dragons and the 9-0 Ithaca Bombers in Yankee Stadium. This was easily the one of the most important games in many of the players lives not only was it for bragging rights and the jug but a win meant an undefeated regular season.
Cortaca has been a tradition going on since 1959, the first Cortaca was played on Ithaca’s field where Cortland won the game 13-7. The tradition started between the two teams’ captains who were friends and bought a ceramic milk jug to put the game scores on and use as a trophy to the game. Over the 63 year history there has been a total of 3 different ceramic jugs awarded to the winner.
The week prior to the Cortaca game the team had to be prepare themselves for the intense and loud environment that they would be entering. During team drills in practice crowd noise would be played over the speakers to prepare us for the noisy crowd since it was many of their first times playing in front of over 40,000 people. The crowd of 40,232 was the second most all time for a division III football game second only to 2020s Cortaca jug in Met Life stadium.
After the intense week of practice came to an end and Friday hit the Dragons took the bus to Yankee stadium to see the field, stadium, locker rooms and get settled in. As the team arrived the energy changed and everyone was hyped to get on the field. They were all excited as it was a truly surreal moment. The equipment bags were loaded off the bus and moved into the locker room. Some members of the team were in awe of the whole experience being in such a historic place like Yankee stadium. After leaving the stadium they headed back to the hotel where they were greeted with a great meal and soon a good night’s rest in preparation for the day to come.
The morning came, the team loaded on the buses with a police escort to the stadium. Joe Ruggieri junior LB said “The feeling of walking in almost felt as if we were professional football players”. After getting dressed the team hit the field, they ran out and were shocked to see the stadium seats filled with red navy on every level for some it was hard to all take in at once.
As the game started both teams came out hot and were playing hard football, Ithaca started the first half well scoring on their first drive of the game. Cortland struggled on offense as the Ithaca defense was not allowing much yardage. Zac Boyes Cortland QB also struggled missing open receivers and not playing up to his capabilities ending the half with a interception inside the end endzone. As the half ended the Bombers held the lead by a score of 17-7.
Heading into the locker room the team talked to their coaches and team captains knowing the game was still in reach. They hyped themselves back up and went out there to play some football like the team they were during the first 9 games of the season. Ithaca got the ball to begin the half kicking a field goal which made the score 20-7. The Dragons fought hard getting a sack fumble recovery. This led to a Cortland field goal making the lead only 10.
Sadly, it was not enough to take the jug back home the Ithaca bombers held onto the lead and won the contest 34-17, the Dragons kept their heads held high because their season is not done yet and they would need to move on and learn from it in preparation for playoffs. All around it was an absolutely amazing experience for everyone from the players to the fans as well as giving great exposure for division III athletics.