Late Friday night, SUNY Cortland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college football history– you just didn’t hear about it.
SALEM, VA– When you think college football, you don’t think of this. The Cortland Red Dragons pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the college football season on Friday night against a bona fide powerhouse. The only issue is it flew under nearly everyone’s radar.
For those of those who tuned into the Division III National Championship on Friday night, they were treated to a first half slugfest. It was a David versus Goliath showdown from the very beginning. North Central had been here before, making their fourth appearance in the championship game in the last four seasons. Cortland however was the new kid on the block, making it to the title game for the first time in their program’s history. North Central was supposed to run away with this game. Cortland stunned them with a 38-37 win for the ages, winning them the first national title ever in school history.
North Central has quickly skyrocketed to the pinnacle of Division III football. Scoring 60+ points in six games this season, the Cardinals’ offense has been one of the best in the division. Mind you, the Cards didn’t get here by chance. They knocked off Belhaven 65-0 in the first round, then put the same drubbing on Trinity (TX) 71-28. Then when adversity hit in the semifinals against Wartburg, they still came out on top– winning 34-27. Some reports had North Central running away with the game by 30 points.
But Cortland didn’t think so. A one-loss, 11th ranked Cortland team scrapped their way to Salem. They faced stiff competition in the first two rounds winning their first duo of games by a total margin of six points combined. Still, they managed to make it through the ringer to face off against what was supposed to be a throwaway game. The Cardinals were supposed to win by too much.
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And it might’ve looked that way in the beginning. Despite an offensive slugfest in the first half–three of the first four drives of the game ended in fourth down stops in the red zone, the score was tied 7-3 at halftime, the entire game exploded in the second half, with both teams going tit-for-tat.
In all facets of the game, it was what is entirely right with college football. A huge upset, a defensive showing in the first half, an offensive shootout with 65 combined points in the second, athletes playing purely for the fun of it, and a come-down-to-the-wire finish that ended in a failed two-point conversion for the Cardinals. Either way you spin it, it was truly a spectacular game that deserved every bit of the little hype it got.
Cortland quarterback Zac Boyes threw for five touchdowns and 349 yards, accompanied with 123 yards on the ground. This was a quarterback who diced out North Central’s nationally renowned defense and absolutely took the game into his hands throughout the night.
The Red Dragons’ defense bent but refused to break, denying a two-point conversion that involved a quarterback outside zone to the left from an offense that averaged over 60 points a game and the Division III Gagliardi Trophy winner, Luke Lehnen.
“It means everything. I was over there talking to the officials on the sideline when we were kneeling it out and I’m like ‘We can kneel it, right? We can kneel it out and clock’s at zero’ and he said yes,” Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick said. “I can’t believe it. It’s amazing. I’m so proud of our players and coaches and our fan base that drove seven hours to be here.”
It had everything any football fan could want, the only thing that was missing was an overtime showdown, and if North Central hadn’t have gone for the twofer, who knows when the game would’ve ended.
At the end of the day, it’s the small games that tend to be the best. It’s the games you end up watching on a Friday night that somehow become the most thrilling– and who knows, it could end up making history.
