On Saturday, Nov. 11, the Case Western Reserve University football team traveled to Pittsburgh to face off against long-time rival Carnegie Mellon University in their final game of the season.

The Spartans went into the game with a 7-2 record, coming off a dominating 42-14 win over Allegheny College on Senior Day the week before. On the other side, the Tartans stood at 8-1 overall as they hosted the Spartan’s season finale at Gesling Stadium for the 37th Annual Academic Bowl.

In the first quarter, the Tartans got on the scoreboard first when running back Tre Vasiliadis capped off a 14-play, 92-yard drive that culminated in a one-yard touchdown run that took 6:45 off the clock. The first quarter ended at 7-0, with both teams putting up a strong defense.

CMU started the second quarter, scoring again when quarterback Ben Mills threw a 20-yard pass to wide receiver Ethan Reifer for a touchdown and making the score 14-0. With a little over five minutes left in the quarter, fourth-year Spartan quarterback Alex Fromberg threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to third-year wide receiver Noah Coyne, which put the Spartans on the board and cut their deficit to 14-7. This was Coyne’s 11th touchdown of the season.

The score remained unchanged going into the third quarter until the Tartans, with less than eight minutes to go, scored a field goal to expand their lead to 17-7. This 10-point lead was cut short when the Spartans fought back with less than a minute left in an impressive 9-play, 83-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Fromberg to third-year wide receiver Ethan Dahlem. With a score of 17-14, the Spartans were within scoring range, giving them hope for a win.

The start of the fourth quarter saw CMU complete a touchdown drive, pulling the Tartans ahead by 10, 24-14, with a little over eight minutes left in the game. The Spartans countered with Fromberg throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass to fourth-year wide receiver Riley Knurek in the end zone, bringing CWRU within a field goal, 24-21. With CWRU’s defensive momentum flowing, Carnegie Mellon was shut down on the next drive by the Spartans defense, forcing a punt.

However, a turnover gave the Tartans the ball back and subsequently resulted with CMU scoring a touchdown which would be the final points of the game with a final score of 31-21.

The Spartans finished the season with a record of 7-3, and they ranked fourth in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference standings.