ITHACA, NY – Consistent scoring for Ithaca College led to a 52-3 victory over the Alfred University football team on Saturday afternoon from Butterfield Stadium.
 
The Saxons (0-3, 0-0 Empire 8) finished with 173 total yards of offense, 115 of which came through the air. The Bombers (3-0, 0-0 Liberty League) were limited to 14 points in the second half.
 
Zuke Smith (Kane, PA/Kane Area) completed 11-of-33 passes for 115 yards. Jacob Kelsey (Hilton, NY/Hilton) finished with a team-high 77 receiving yards across five receptions. Christopher Cox (Rochester, NY/Pittsford-Sutherland) led all players with 12 tackles, five of which were solo.
 
"That was definitely not the performance that I was expecting to see today," Head Coach Bob Rankl said. "Ithaca was better than us in all three phases of the game- Offense, defense, and special teams. Their coaches did a better job preparing their players for the game."
 
Defense set the tone early in the opening quarter, as neither side put points on the board from the first three possessions. A 76-yard drive for the Bombers was capped off by a goal line rush to take the early 7-0 lead over the Saxons in the first quarter. The Alfred University offense retaliated on the following drive, as Kelsey caught two different 15-yard passes to bring AU into field goal range. Ian Barbini (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock Area) knocked in a 23-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 7-3.
 
Ithaca scored once again in the opening minutes of the second quarter to extend their lead to 14-3. Later in the quarter, the Bombers failed to convert on fourth down from Alfred's two-yard line thanks to a goal line stop from Cox and Danny Quinones (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott). Ithaca scored 24 additional points before entering halftime with a 38-3 advantage over Alfred University.
 
The Saxons defense stood their ground in the third quarter, but a late score from the Bombers extended the deficit. Ithaca put up seven more points before the end of the afternoon.
 
"We are going to focus on getting back to the basics this week and work as hard as we can to prepare for a win on homecoming," Rankl said. "We have seven games remaining and we are going to do everything that we can to put our players in the best situation to win every single one of them. Our top goal is to go 1-0 next week."
 
Alfred University will next return home to host Kalamazoo College next Saturday as part of Homecoming weekend. Kickoff is scheduled to take place at 12:00PM.