It definitely wasn’t the way that the season should have ended. In its season finale against Army, the sprint football team fell 52-3 Friday night at Schoellkopf Field to finish with a record of 2-4, 1-3 in the CSFL, closing out the careers of the team’s seniors on a sour note.
The story of the game was the performance of the Black Knights’ quarterback Steve McKeon. In his first career start at quarterback, McKeon stole the show, rushing for three touchdowns, and passing for another. His 110 rushing yards and 100 passing yards accounted for 210 of Army’s 451 total yards.
Army (5-0, 3-0) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Just over four minutes into the game, the Knights scored on a 29-yard run by McKeon. This was followed by two more touchdowns in the first quarter to give Army a 21-0 lead.
The Knights scored twice more in the second quarter to extend their lead to 31-0. Cornell responded with its only score of the game, a 39-yard field goal by freshman Chris Garnic with 35 seconds remaining in the half.
Senior quarterback Sunil Gupta commented, “Army was really strong overall.”
Army’s prolific offense continued into the second half, with another touchdown run by McKeon, as well as touchdowns by Baron Moffitt and Jesus Soler.
Offensively, the Red suffered from lapses in concentration, possibly due to the fact that this was the last game of a disappointing season.
Explaining the lack of offensive production, Gupta said, “We didn’t buckle down and put the ball in the endzone from the red zone.”
The potent Army defense limited the Red’s offense to just 173 total yards — 50 on the ground.
Unfocused
On the defensive side of the ball, a similar lack of concentration was responsible for the team’s poor performance. “People weren’t as focused [as they should have been],” said senior linebacker Greg Drakos.
Drakos emphasized many positives in the game despite the result. The Red defense was able to sack McKeon on numerous occasions. Senior DB Angelo Palmieri led the team with 10 tackles in the game.
Offensively, Gupta completed a high percentage of pass attempts, despite difficulties in reaching the endzone.
Army will conclude its season on Nov. 9 against Navy, with the CSFL Championship at stake.
Archived article by Owen Bochner