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ITHACA, N.Y. – Welcome back, defense!

Shades of Colgate's performance last season at Lehigh came pouring through here Saturday as the Raiders burst into the win column with a 41-20 triumph over rival Cornell.

Mike Armiento returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown and freshman quarterback Jake Melville sprang off the bench to lead four second-half scoring drives. It was the first win of the season for the Raiders after four opening losses, and it came despite senior quarterback Gavin McCarney re-injuring his knee early in the third quarter with Colgate trailing 20-17.

Oddly enough, that play proved to be the spark. From that moment on, the Raiders turned in their most complete football of the season.

"It was a big win for us," Colgate head coach Dick Biddle said. "Cornell is a great school and our natural rival, and our kids take it that way. It's good to come over here with our alums and beat them. They are a good football team."

Colgate's defense pitched a second-half shutout, sacking Cornell All-America quarterback Jeff Mathews four times in the process and forcing a second Armiento interception midway in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders entered the game allowing more than 500 yards of total offense per game. Cornell gained 403 Saturday, but only 143 of those came after halftime when the Colgate defense put together back-to-back scoreless quarters for the first time since winning the 2012 Patriot League championship at Lehigh.

"Our defense really rallied around Gavin's injury," Biddle said. "They've been giving up a lot of points and a lot of yards, and today they stepped up with the score on defense, the sacks and the interceptions.

"Mathews is a great quarterback with a great arm, and he's going to complete the passes. You just have to make sure they're not the deep ones. And we were able to do that, particularly in the second half."

Freshman Impact
Melville got the call at quarterback for Colgate when McCarney was tackled on the Raiders sideline with 11:30 remaining in the third quarter. The Sparta, N.J., native took the field and calmly marched the Raiders into the lead, doing the honors himself from 6 yards out on a fourth-down play that made it 23-20.

"Gavin went down and Coach called for me," Melville said. "He just kept telling me to stay calm and they called a few simple plays that I knew we would be able to execute."

The lone quarterback in Colgate's very first scholarship recruiting class, Melville said he was receiving encouragement throughout the huddle. Tailback Jimmy DeCicco even described what was about to happen on that fourth-down TD run.

"Jimmy told me if they crash down to just take the ball and walk into the end zone," Melville said. "And they crashed down, sure enough."

Three more scoring drives followed of 80, 77 and 10 yards – the latter coming after Armiento's second pick of Mathews and his zigzagging return that was one shoestring tackle away from a second touchdown.

Armiento's 85-yard interception return to open the scoring tied for fifth longest in school history, and his combined 134 yards on the two picks is a Colgate record.

"I knew that first play was coming," Armiento said of the pick-six on an out pattern. "I knew he had a strong arm and was going to try it. I just took my chance and I jumped it because I knew it was coming."

It was Colgate's first interception return for a touchdown since Vinnie Nicosia went 79 yards with a pick against Bucknell in 2011. It also marked Armiento's first collegiate touchdown and Colgate's first defensive score since Austin Dier rumbled home a fumble return last year at Stony Brook.

"I couldn't do any of this without my defensive line and the linebackers getting underneath," said Armiento, who has three interceptions this season and nine for his career. "Our defensive line played awesome today. On the second one, they were pressuring and he had to throw it up. I was just playing safety in the middle of the field and read his eyes."

Sharp While It Lasted
McCarney in his two-plus quarters was 14-of-18 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown, along with another 74 rushing yards on nine carries. Melville completed 3-of-4 for 60 yards and a TD to go with 54 rushing yards and another score.

"You never know what kids are going to do when they are under the gun," Biddle said. "(Melville) is a good football player, but the key is the whole team stepped up when Gavin got hurt and that's what you expect.

"That took a lot of pressure off of him and he just had to operate the offense."

Biddle in the locker room awarded honorary game balls to nine different Raiders – his men in the trenches.

"The key to the game was our offensive line and our defensive line," he said. "We were able to run the ball because our offensive line did a great job. And our defensive line was able to put pressure on the quarterback. If you can do that with four people and blitz every now and then, you've got a chance to win."

Colgate outgained Cornell (1-2) 465 yards to 403, including a 258-52 edge on the ground.

DeCicco drew the starting assignment at tailback in place of the injured Demetrius Russell and carried 22 times for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Included was a 77-yard burst through the middle of the line that pushed Colgate in front 35-20 with 9:20 to play.

It was Colgate's longest offensive play of the season.

"Demetrius went down last Friday in practice and I had been getting reps all week; I was ready for it," DeCicco said. "Our offense is a system, so you plug guys in.

"It could have been anybody they put back there and somebody would have stepped up for us. Today was a team effort, and it's always nice when the defense puts up points for you."

Dan Cason finished with eight receptions for 120 yards. Nat Bellamy and John Quazza added touchdown receptions, with Bellamy's the second this season and Quazza's the first of his career.

"It all starts in practice," Cason said. "These last two weeks, we practiced harder than we had all season. We had a lot more energy, and that just translated to the game. We were going on all cylinders today.

"We finally executed today. One of the big things from the first four games is we weren't executing and doing what we knew we were capable of doing. Today, it just all came together and you saw that on the field."

First One's the Hardest
Cason leads the Colgate receiving corps with 25 catches for 337 yards. The East Stroudsburg, Pa., senior knows that Saturday's effort can be a sign of better days ahead.

"The first one's always the hardest," he said. "Things are going to go the wrong way, but we just kept at it and we didn't punt one time today. That's what we like to see.

"We only stopped ourselves, and that means we can get better."

Colgate safety Demitri Diamond led all tacklers with 12 stops, while Armiento added 11 to increase his team lead in that category to 48. Bobby Stup, Victor Steffen had Charles Cairnie contributed solo sacks in the game, with Dier and Andrew Nairin sharing another sack.

"It was an incredible second half," Steffen said. "We came into the locker room at halftime and there was a lot of very intense emotion. We were tired of losing, basically.

"So we were relentless the entire second half. That was one of the key things – just being relentless. That all goes back to preparing for this game for the past two weeks."

Cornell's Mathews finished 33-of-44 passing for 351 yards and two touchdowns to go with his two interceptions. Mathews ended the day with 9,303 career passing yards to take over the Ivy League lead.

The injury to Colgate's starting signal-caller, McCarney, is being called a sprain for the time being. Further evaluations are forthcoming.

The Raiders host Stony Brook (2-3) next Saturday in a 6 p.m. kickoff.

Raider Reels: Colgate's win was its fifth in a row over Cornell and 15th in the last 17 meetings. The Big Red still lead the overall series 48-44-3 … Biddle improved to 14-2 against Cornell and 39-10 against Ivy League foes … Colgate's 7-0 lead on the Armiento interception return was its first of any kind since 7-0 at Air Force more than a month ago … The Raiders also hadn't held a team scoreless for any quarter since that same opening period in Colorado Springs … Melville is the third Raiders quarterback to see action this year. Dylan Finelli went the whole way against New Hampshire in place of an injured McCarney, but Finelli injured his shoulder in that game and is out indefinitely … Colgate scored on all five red-zone possessions, including four touchdowns. Cornell was just 2-of-4 … Saturday's attendance was 4,973.