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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Behind a well-balanced offensive attack and a strong defensive effort, the Navy sprint football team closed out the home portion of its 2015 schedule with a 35-14 win over Cornell on Friday night at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Mids led wire-to-wire and rolled up 468 offensive yards on the Big Red (3-3, 3-3 CSFL) to improve to 5-1 on the season and 4-1 in league play.

Quarterback Nick Deterding (Jr., Lindsborg, Kan.) orchestrated an efficient Navy offense that averaged 5.8 yards per play with a personal stat line of 220 yards and two touchdowns passing and 114 yards and a touchdown rushing. He was joined in the ground game by running back Eric Wellmon (Sr., Wallkill, N.Y.), who carried the ball 26 times for 122 yards and two touchdowns in his final collegiate home game. Another senior, Matthew Hite (Chapin, S.C.), was the leading recipient of Deterding's passing attack with a team-high six catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

On defense, Navy got contributions from across its ranks as senior co-captain Collin Ascherl (Sr., Granville, Iowa) led a group of 18 players with tackles with a team-high seven stops. From the defensive backfield, Kendall Mackey (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) was a menace once again to opposing quarterbacks as he recorded two interceptions with 67 return yards. Amongst the defensive linemen, Alex Oldham (So., Dayton, Ohio) stepped up in place of an injured Temple Sloan (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) with two sacks, two pass break ups and a forced fumble.

The Mids jumped out to an early 7-0 lead as their first drive of the game resulted in a touchdown as the team drove 82 yards on 13 plays before Wellmon muscled his way in for a two-yard score at 5:41. Deterding set up the short touchdown run with a 20-yard rush on the previous play.

Up 7-0, Navy broke open the contest with touchdowns on all three of its possessions in the second quarter. Wellmon scored the first touchdown in that span as he took a handoff 15 yards in for his second visit to the end zone of the game at 8:33. A 40-yard completion from Deterding to Hite helped the Mids flip the field on that drive and collect nearly half of their 81 total yards. After a quick three-and-out by Cornell resulted in a short 38-yard field for Navy, the host team was in the end zone again just 2:58 later as Deterding called his own number and rushed in from three yards out at 3:39.

With the score 21-0, Cornell finally got on the scoreboard with 42 seconds remaining in the second quarter with a Rob Pannullo 17-yard completion to Trevor Marrero. The Mids weren't ready to take their 14-point lead into the locker room at half as Mac Lavis (So., Orinda, Calif.) took the ensuing kickoff back 28 yards to the Navy 49-yard line. The Deterding to Hite connection led to final score of the first half with two catches covering 46 yards. After Hite corralled a 44-yard reception to get the ball to the seven-yard line, two plays later Deterding lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone to his favorite target for a two-yard touchdown with seven seconds remaining.

Down 28-7, the visiting Big Red squad tightened the game to a two touchdown margin of 28-14 at the 7:02 mark of the third quarter when Pannullo completed a 26-yard pass to Kevin Nathanson.

Navy tried getting back ahead by three scores late in the third quarter with a 60-yard drive, but Cornell forced a turnover on downs from the 20-yard line after Deterding found Wellmon for a 54-yard completion to set up the Mids deep in Big Red territory.

The final score of the game occurred in the fourth quarter and was facilitated by an interception by Mackey and subsequent 40-yard return to Cornell's 22-yard line. On the fifth play of the drive, Deterding found a slim hole in a tightly-packed end zone and hit Hite from seven yards out for the duo's second pass-and-catch touchdown combination of the game at 10:07.

A 10-play, 72-yard drive that lasted for over six and a half minutes closed out the victory for the Mids.

For the game, Navy outgained Cornell 468 yards to 249 and outrushed the Big Red, 248 to 97. Coming into Friday's matchup, Cornell had averaged 179.2 rushing yards per game. Navy's total offensive output was its second-highest of the season trailing only its 520-yard effort at Mansfield.

The Mids will conclude their season next Saturday afternoon, Oct. 31 at West Point for a CSFL championship and 2015 Star game matchup versus the undefeated Black Knights. Army West Point held on Friday night for a 16-13 double overtime victory over Penn. Kickoff between the teams is set for 2 p.m. at Shea Stadium.