Brown Beats Cornell 38-31 in OT as Matt Childs Scores on Back-to-Back Plays

A year ago, Cornell came from behind to beat Brown in double overtime. On Saturday in Providence, Brown returned the favor, and it needed every last second of regulation to do it.

Brown beat Cornell 38-31 in overtime at Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium on Oct. 24, rallying from deficits of 21-7 and 31-17. Matt Childs caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from James Murphy on fourth down on the final play of regulation, then ran 25 yards for the winning score on the first play of overtime. Two snaps, two touchdowns, one wild Family Weekend.

Both teams left the stadium at 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Ivy League. Only one of them left smiling.

Brown strikes first, then gives it away

The Bears made a statement on Cornell's opening possession, stuffing the Big Red on fourth-and-inches at the Brown 30. Brown then turned the stop into points. Murphy's drive featured three third-down conversions and a fourth-and-1 conversion, and it ended with a 31-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Pearson Hill at 3:39 of the first quarter.

That 7-0 lead did not survive the second quarter. Brown turned it over on two straight possessions deep in its own territory, and Cornell made it pay. Quarterback Garrett Bass-Sulpizio did the damage on the ground, finishing the half with three rushing touchdowns, and by 5:23 of the second quarter the Big Red led 21-7.

Drew Crabtree's 28-yard field goal with 25 seconds left in the half cut it to 21-10, but Cornell was in control.

The third quarter swing that wasn't

Cornell kicker Caden Lesiewicz pushed the lead to 24-10 with a 27-yard field goal at 9:57 of the third quarter. Then Brown's defense delivered. Senior Camryn Williams-Dalton jumped a route, picked off Bass-Sulpizio and returned it to the Cornell 18. Three plays later, Childs ran it in from 6 yards out, and with 5:53 left in the third it was 24-17.

If that felt like a turning point, Cornell disagreed immediately. The Big Red marched right back down the field in seven plays and 2:44, and Bass-Sulpizio hit Brendan Lee for a 12-yard touchdown to make it 31-17 heading into the fourth quarter.

The rally

Brown's comeback started from its own 1-yard line. The Bears went 99 yards, and the drive ended with the play of the day: Murphy found freshman Saphir Miller down the right sideline, and Miller made a one-handed catch in stride and turned it into a 50-yard touchdown. With 13:48 left, it was 31-24.

Brown's defense got one more stop, and the offense got one more chance with 4:25 to play. Brown took over at its own 16, trailing by seven, and what followed was the kind of drive coaches dream about and defensive coordinators have nightmares about. The Bears converted four third downs. They worked their way to the Cornell 9 with fewer than 20 seconds left. It took 18 plays to cover 84 yards, and it came down to one snap.

The turning point

Fourth down. Final play of regulation. Murphy looked for Childs in the back of the end zone, and Childs went up and got it. Crabtree's extra point tied the game at 31 and sent it to overtime.

Cornell won the toss and chose to play defense first, which meant Brown got the ball first. It needed one play. Childs took the handoff around the right side and got inside the pylon for a 25-yard touchdown. Brown 38, Cornell 31.

The Big Red still had an answer to give, but it never came. Cornell's overtime possession ended with a turnover on downs on fourth-and-8, and the Bears had their first Ivy League win of the season.

Matt Childs and James Murphy

Childs finished with 179 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns, splitting the work almost evenly with 85 receiving yards and 72 rushing yards. The game-tying and game-winning scores came on consecutive plays, which is a sentence most players never get to say. According to Brown, Childs has now topped 100 all-purpose yards in all six games this season.

Murphy, a senior, completed 31 of 50 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns. Hill had five catches for a career-high 80 yards and a score, Miller had two catches for 68 yards, Levi Linowes added 33 receiving yards and Elijah Jones ran for 32.

What makes Murphy's line stand out is what it took to get there. Cornell sacked Murphy six times, and the Bears still kept moving the chains when it mattered most, especially on that final drive, when four third downs and a fourth down all went Brown's way.

On defense, senior Stefano Montella led Brown with eight tackles. Williams-Dalton's interception was the fourth of the season for the senior, who also had five tackles, and junior Cap Davis came up with another pick at the goal line. Those two takeaways matched Cornell's two, and on a day this close, that mattered.

Cornell's big day, wasted

For Cornell, the frustration is that so much went right. Bass-Sulpizio completed 25 of 42 passes for 277 yards, threw a touchdown and ran for three more, though the two interceptions hurt. Xavier Bowman caught eight passes for 69 yards, Jaxon Long had five for 58 and Lee was the team's leading rusher with 47 yards on five carries to go with the touchdown catch. Josiah Allen added 34 yards on five carries.

The Cornell defense sacked Murphy six times, with two apiece from Dalten Phelan and Sam Greenspan, and forced two fumbles, though Brown recovered both. Tommy MacPherson had nine tackles and an interception, and Johnny Williamson added another pick. Cornell's own headline after the game said the Big Red squandered a second-half lead. That is hard to argue with.

The stats that matter

Brown put up a season-high 463 yards of total offense to Cornell's 405, and the down-and-distance numbers explain how. Brown converted 4 of 5 fourth-down tries, including the one that tied the game. Brown's defense, meanwhile, held Cornell to 4-of-15 on third and fourth downs combined, per Brown. The full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

Brown needed this one badly. The Bears had lost three games by a combined 13 points, and they had scored exactly 10 in each of them: 14-10 to Harvard, 13-10 to Rhode Island in the Governor's Cup and 16-10 at Princeton. A fourth close loss would have been brutal. Instead, Brown scored 38, won in overtime and climbed to 1-2 in the league. Next on the schedule was a Halloween home game against Penn, a matchup of two teams that had just picked up their first Ivy wins, followed by a trip to Yale, Senior Day against Columbia and a finale at Dartmouth. Brown's recap is here (opens in a new tab).

Cornell, which came into the day receiving votes in the national poll, now has two Ivy losses and a week to think about how this one got away. Next on the schedule for the Big Red was a Halloween trip to Princeton. Cornell's recap is here (opens in a new tab).

The last word

Rivalries like this one are supposed to even out, and in Providence, it did. Last year, Cornell had the comeback and the overtime magic. This year, it was Brown's turn: a 99-yard drive, an 84-yard drive, a fourth-down catch with no time left and a 25-yard run to finish it. Some Saturdays you get to write your own ending. Brown wrote it twice in two plays.

Sources: Brown Athletics recap and schedule, Cornell Athletics recap, FingerLakes1 and BVM Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Brown Athletics.