Columbia football winless no more, defeats Brown 35-28

Sixty minutes were not enough to decide the final Ivy League game of the season between Columbia and Brown. The Lions (1-9, 1-6 Ivy) prevailed in a 35-28 double overtime thriller over the Bears (7-3, 4-3).

A stagnant offense—which had 18 total yards and one first down—allowed the Lions to fall behind 21-7 going into halftime. In the second half and overtime, the defense forced turnovers and the offense did what it had to do to come out on top.

On Brown’s first drive of the game, senior cornerback Neil Schuster undercut and intercepted Bears quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero’s deep pass at Columbia’s 11-yard line. However, Columbia gave back the momentum on just their second play from scrimmage when senior wide receiver Kurt Williams fumbled the football on the Lions' own 17-yard line. The ball rolled towards the sideline, but Brown linebacker Matt O’Donnell recovered it before it went out and ran in for the touchdown to put the Bears up 7-0.

On their next possession, the Bears couldn’t hold onto the ball either. After a quick pass, a Brown receiver fumbled the ball, which senior cornerback Ross Morand recovered and ran back 26 yards to the Brown 10-yard line. After a pass interference call in the end zone, Light Blue quarterback Sean Brackett kept the football on the option and ran in it into the two-yard touchdown.

For the rest of the second quarter, Brown’s offense controlled the clock and the scoreboard while the Columbia offense stagnated. A nine-yard pass from Newhall-Caballero to Matt Sudfeld capped off an eight-play, 79-yard drive 10 minutes into the first quarter. The trend continued early in the second quarter as Newhall-Caballero found Sudfeld again in the end zone, putting the Bears up 21-7.

Brown nearly went up by three touchdowns late in the second quarter, but A.J. Maddox made a beautiful break on a Newhall-Caballero pass on Columbia’s six-yard line, intercepting the ball and returning it 77 yards before being tackled by Newhall-Caballero down the sideline to prevent a pick-six. The offense was unable to punch it into the end zone, though, and sophomore kicker Luke Eddy missed a 31-yard field goal attempt with less than two minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Two errors in the third quarter nearly proved costly for the Lions. On their first possession of the first half, Sean Brackett came up short of the first down. On fourth down, Lions coach Norries Wilson elected to have Paul Delaney fake the punt and attempt to run for the first down. Delaney came up short.

The Columbia defense forced the Bears to punt on their next possession, but a fumble on the handoff between Brackett and Lowry was recovered by Brown on the Lions two-yard line. The defense held stout, though, and on third and goal, stripped the ball away from a scrambling Newhall-Caballero. Schuster emerged from the pile with the football. The rest of the scoreless third quarter was a battle for field position with both defenses.

Another fumble by Newhall-Caballero, forced by Ryan Murphy, recovered by the Lions at Brown’s 46 yard line, gave Columbia a great chance to cut into the Bears’ two-score lead. Brackett kept on the option and spun in for the two-yard touchdown with 9:36 remaining in the fourth quarter.

On the next possession, Columbia linebacker Ryan Murphy forced the Bears offense off the field with a 12-yard sack. Beginning at the 40-yard line, it took the Lions just six plays to tie the game at 21. On a critical third down, Brackett found Stephens off the play action pass for a gain of 26 yards. Brackett capped off the drive with a one-yard touchdown run with just over five minutes remaining in the game.

Brown then drove into Columbia territory with less than two minutes left in the fourth to try and avoid a collapse and still seal the victory. On a 43-yard field goal attempt, Brown kicker Alexander Norocea came up well short. With the Lions suddenly in position to win the game themselves in regulation, Brackett found Hamilton Garner and DiNovo for completions of 16 yards and eight yards, respectively. He was sacked on the next two plays, though. On fourth and 11, Brackett found a wide open Kurt Williams over the middle of the field for a first down.

With 13 seconds left, Columbia sent out Luke Eddy for the 40-yard field goal attempt to win the game. Brown’s special teams, which had come closer and closer to blocking Eddy’s extra point attempts, finally connected and blocked the kick. Brown’s Hail Mary pass with two seconds in the fourth was then intercepted by cornerback Ross Morand to send the game to overtime.

The Lions won the coin toss and deferred to Brown to start on offense. On the first play of overtime, Newhall-Caballero scrambled in the pocket and found Jimmy Saros wide open in the end zone.

Starting from the 25-yard line, Columbia knew that it had to score a touchdown to keep the game going. On fourth-and-one from the 16, Sean Brackett was able to get the first down on his second effort. On the next play, Brackett found tight end Hamilton Garner in the end zone for the tying touchdown.

By rule, the Lions offense was the next to take possession. It took the Lions just three plays to score a touchdown with the help of three Sean Brackett rushes, capped by a 16-yarder into the end zone.

On fourth-and-four from the 9, Newhall-Caballero found wide receiver Tullef Lundevell for a first down reception at the four-yard line, but the CU defense held stout and forced the Bears into a fourth and goal from the one.

On the final play of the game, the Bears put the ball in the hands of Newhall-Caballero and called a quarterback draw. The quarterback jumped up and reached for the line. He came down but the officials didn’t make an immediate call as to whether he had broke the plain. Brown’s defense and Columbia’s offense huddled around the referees as they discussed the call. After what seemed like an eternity, the head referee emerged from the fray to declare that Brown had come up short.

After the call, the rest of the Lions bench stormed the field in euphoria in celebration of what was the team’s first overtime win since 1996—the last time the Light Blue had a winning season.

With the win, the Lions avoided their first winless season since 1987. While it is unclear about the future of head coach Norries Wilson, the Lions can certainly take solace in avoiding record-book infamy.