Saturday’s homecoming football game was supposed to be an opportunity for the Red to make a statement in front of its largest home crowd of the year. Instead, Fordham’s senior quarterback John Skelton silenced Cornell.

Skelton threw for 420 yards and five touchdowns in leading the Rams to a 39-27 victory over the Red. He also rushed for a touchdown to cap off his impressive performance.

“We’re very fortunate; we have a pretty good quarterback that can make a lot of big plays and you saw what that did today,” said Fordham coach Tom Masella.

Skelton had plenty of help from his classmate Jason Caldwell. Caldwell hauled in nine passes for 245 yards and four touchdowns.

“I was fortunate enough to catch some short passes and make some big plays out of them,” Caldwell said.

The biggest catch of all, however, was made by another one of Fordham’s receivers: senior Asa Lucas. After Cornell came up short on multiple attempts to punch the ball into the end zone and retake the lead late in the first quarter, Skelton and Lucas connected for a 98-yard touchdown pass. The play was the longest in Fordham history as well as the longest Cornell has ever allowed.Bringing down the house: Junior linebacker Brandon Lainhart (40) goes after Fordham quarterback John Skelton, who threw for 420 yards and five touchdowns.

The Red played well to start the game and looked to be in the driver’s seat early. Cornell forced Fordham to punt on the opening drive of the game. The Red took over at its own 11, but advanced to the red zone in just four plays. Senior running back Randy Barbour appeared to score a touchdown for Cornell, however the play was called back because of a holding penalty. The Red settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

The Skelton-to-Caldwell connection began to dominate on the ensuing possession. Skelton threw two passes during the drive, both of which were caught by Caldwell. The first was a 12-yard pickup on second-and-12. Two plays later, Caldwell caught the ball over the middle, broke a tackle, and sprinted the rest of the way for a 71-yard touchdown.

Sophomore quarterback Adam Currie — starting in place of injured senior Ben Ganter — looked to answer when Cornell got the ball back. With help from his running backs, he drove the Red down the field and set up the Red’s second first-and-goal situation of the game. Cornell coach Jim Knowles called three straight running plays, the last of which got the Red to the one-yard line.

Knowles elected to go for six on fourth down and ran a play for freshman Nick Mlady. Mlady received a handoff, lunged for the end zone and was very close to scoring, but the refs ruled that he was tackled just short of the goal line.

“I thought we were in,” Knowles said. “[The] official said he [Mlady] lost his feet. He’s a tough kid. He’s going to be an awesome player, but he’s a true freshman. Bottom line is they called it against us.”

Fordham was forced to start its next drive backed up against its own end zone. The Rams ran twice in the hopes of securing some breathing room and were almost bottled up for a safety on each play. Cornell did not record the safety, however, and on third down Lucas caught the record-setting 98-yard completion. Junior cornerback Emani Fenton had good coverage on Lucas when Skelton released the throw, but he appeared to slow down while the ball was in the air.

“[Fenton] froze for a second,” Knowles said. “He stopped his feet.”

“[The goal-line stand] kind of lit a fire under us and we started to play a heck of a lot better after it,” Masella said. “And to follow it up with the touchdown was a big play.”

Fordham failed to convert the extra point, but led 13-3 after Lucas’ score. The two teams traded offensive miscues on the next several drives before Currie connected with senior Bryan Walters for a 33-yard touchdown pass. After the extra point, Cornell pulled within three points. The helmet catch: Senior wide receiver Bryan Walters (18) catches a touchdown pass from sophomore Adam Currie. Walters had 10 receptions for 178 yards, and 338 all-purpose yards.

During the following four drives, neither team’s offense recorded so much as a first down. Defensively, Cornell did a great job up front during those possessions. The Red stuffed the running game and recorded two sacks. The Red offense failed to capitalize though and it was not long before Fordham struck with another big play.

On third-and-eight, with just over a minute remaining in the first half, Skelton found Caldwell for a 58-yard touchdown pass. The play seemed to puncture Cornell’s confidence as the Red came up lame in the third quarter.

Cornell punted on its first drive of the second half. On Fordham’s first offensive play of the half, junior running back Xavier Martin broke free for an 86-yard touchdown only to have most of the run negated by a penalty. On the very next play, Skelton again threw a touchdown pass to Caldwell, this time for 50 yards.

The rout was on from that point forward as Fordham eventually built a 39-13 lead. Most of the 8,231 fans in attendance filed out as Fordham poured it on during the second half. The Red was able to save face a bit when senior Stephen Liuzza ran wild during the fourth quarter. The versatile Liuzza played quarterback, but did most of his work on the ground. He rushed for 174 yards and two touchdowns in the game’s final quarter.

“We’re not there yet, it’s a marathon not a sprint,” Knowles said of his team. “We’re working hard with our players to teach them to play every single play, play the whole game no matter what the score is.”