Storm snap skid, prevail over Cornell
INDIANOLA, Iowa - Jake Rissi attended Saturday night's Halloween festivities at Buxton Stadium donning his best tailback costume.
The 6-1, 229-pound Rissi – normally a fullback and tight end – lined up in his third position of the season and carried Simpson to a 17-16 win over Cornell on Senior Night at Buxton Stadium on Saturday.
Due to injuries sustained by Matt Claassen (Jr., Newhall, Iowa) and Renauld Shelton (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.), Rissi got the nod in the backfield, rushing for 131 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown. His lone score came less than two minutes into the second half, when, trailing 16-10, the junior from Marion, Iowa rumbled 73 yards for the game-winning touchdwon.
Senior Coy Carter (Raytown, Mo.) added 57 yards on six carries and freshman Austin Schmidt (Reinbeck, Iowa) contributed 8 yards as the Storm (3-6, 2-5 IIAC) totaled 242 yards on the ground.
"Tonight was a total team-effort," head coach Jim Glogowski said. "We really saw the depth of our tailback position pay off for us tonight."
Simpson snapped a four-game losing skid with the win, while Cornell (1-7, 0-6 IIAC) lost its 34th consecutive conference game, tying the IIAC record set by Simpson in a stretch from 1958-62.
What turned out to be the biggest play of the game came on Cornell's first touchdown drive with 5 minutes, 48 seconds remaining in the first half.
After a 32-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Andrew Burdick to Alex Macy, Simpson's Cody Jensen (Sr., Grinnell, Iowa) provided pressure up the middle on the extra-point attempt. As a result, kicker Andrew Johnson pulled the kick wide-left, proving the difference in the game.
"We had some really good pressure on that play that forced the kicker to pull it," Glogowski said. "You never know when those points are going to come back to hurt you or help you, but tonight it obviously helped us."
After Rissi's go-ahead score early in the second half, the Simpson defense took over, shutting out the Rams for the final 15 minutes. Of four second-half drives for the Rams, Simpson forced two turnovers on downs, a punt, and intercepted a pass.
Senior safety John Wolfe (Council Bluffs, Iowa) picked off Burdick in the end zone in the third quarter.
"Tonight is a confidence booster for us," Glogowski said. "We knew going in that we would have to play our tails off to come away with a win. This win gives our players the belief that if you keep working hard, good things will happen."
Simpson quarterback Tyson Unkrich (Swedesburg, Iowa) completed 8-of-15 passes for 117 yards and rushed 49 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. His counterpart, Burdick, threw for 180 yards and two touchdowns off 18-of-36 passing, rushing for 59 yards. Charles McDonald led Cornell with 62 yards on 16 carries.
Sophomore tight end Alex McCarty (Prescott, Iowa) led Simpson with three catches for 44 yards. Defensively, sophomore linebacker Braden Everding had a game-high 12 tackles, including 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Jensen added 10 tackles and senior defensive lineman Robby Napoli (Independence, Mo.) came away with a pair of sacks.
Kyle Tierney had game-highs with eight catches for 90 yards while Macey and Harry Herbert made touchdown grabs for the Rams. Tyler Bailey and Cody Backhaus each made eight tackles defensively, while Bailey added two tackles-for-loss.
After trading field goals in the first quarter, a 6-yard touchdown run by Unkrich gave Simpson a 10-3 lead until Burdick and Macey hooked up to make the score 10-9. Cornell took the lead on the final play of the first half, as Burdick tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Herbert as time expired.
Simpson enjoys its bye next week before traveling to Waverly for the season finale against Wartburg Nov. 14. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. The play-by-play can be heard on Iowa's True Oldies Channel, 105.3 KEDB and online at www.kedb.fm.
