NEW YORK—One trophy down, two to go.
 
Gun-run quarterback Ty Lenhart scored three rushing touchdowns on runs of 6, 1, and 8 yards, while the Lions combined to rush for 226 yards to power Columbia past Georgetown 35-24 and recapture the Lou Little Cup.
 
"We talked about it all week," coach Al Bagnoli, who won nine Ivy League Championships while leading Penn, said. "We don't have great tradition here, so we're trying to develop tradition. You get an opportunity to compete not only for in game which only 10 are scheduled, but you're also competing for a trophy and it's symbolic of a guy (Lou Little) who had a legendary career here and in Georgetown."
 
The rivalry game was established in 2015 with the winner earning bragging rights to the Lou Little Trophy, the namesake Lou Little served as the head football coach at both institutions.

Columbia (2-0) took an early lead and never trailed in the game, but had to hold off a Georgetown offense that totaled 476 yards and passed for 368 yards on the day.
 
Columbia took a commanding 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Weakside linebacker Justin Woodley hurried quarterback Pierce Holley — who got the start at quarterback for the Hoyas after Joseph Brunell was injured against Harvard last week — on fourth and 5 and his pass was broken up by Bryan Bell-Anderson. Columbia's next play was a 46-yard pass down the middle of the field where Wills Meyer (five catches, 87 yards) stretched out to haul in Joe Green's pass. Ty'son Edwards capped off the four-play, 64-yard drive with a 4-yard run for his first career touchdown run and put Columbia up 7-0 with 7:15 left in the first quarter. 
 
Dante Miller started Columbia's next drive with a 63-yard run to get to Georgetown's (1-2) 22-yard line following Georgetown's punt. Lenhart ran it in from six yards out to cap off the seven play, 85-yard drive to make it 14-0 with 1:44 left in the first quarter. The backup quarterback was filling in for Gabriel Hollingsworth, who served as the specialty quarterback last week, scoring a 15-yard touchdown run on his first touch as a college football player in the season opening win vs. Marist.
 
Georgetown got on the board with a two-yard touchdown run by Joshua Stakely to cap a 10-play, 76-yard drive over the span of 5:03, ending the Lions' 51-unanswered points streak.
 
It didn't take long for the Lions to answer. 
 
Will Allen took the ensuing kickoff back 92 yards for his first career kickoff return touchdown to make it 21-7 with 11:21 left in the first half. The play tied for the sixth longest kickoff return return in school history, and beat his 91-yard return vs. Princeton in 2019.
 
"It's so good to finally get a return for a touchdown," Allen said. "I've been trying to get one since my freshman year, so it felt good to get my first one. My teammates did all the blocks and I just had to do the running. They opened up a big hole for me and I just ran through and did my assignment."
 
For the second straight game, Allen was filling in for All-American returner Mike Roussos, who remained out with an undisclosed medical issue.
 
"It's been natural," Allen, the son of former NFL cornerback Will Allen, said of taking a bigger role on kick return. "When Mikey was there I was still taking reps in practice, so I was still practicing returning kicks and all that. So my number was called. I just stepped up and did what I used to do my freshman year."
 
Georgetown was able to put together another long drive, this time of nine plays for 83 yards to cut Columbia's lead to 21-14 with 6:35 left in the first half. The Hoyas then hit a 42-yard field goal with 1:50 left in the half to inch closer at 21-17. Columbia's 40-yard field goal in the waning moments of the half bounced off the upright to keep the score there.
 
While Georgetown was driving down the field midway through the third quarter, senior safety Ben Mathiasmeier picked off Pierce and returned it 68 yards to set up the 1-yard touchdown run for Lenhart, shifting momentum and extending the score to 28-17 midway through the third quarter.
 
Georgetown (1-2) would answer with Pierce finding Cameron Crayton in the back corner of the endzone to end a nine play, 75-yard drive at the end of the third quarter to pull within a possession at 28-24.
 
Lenhart scored his third rushing touchdown of the day to put things away for Columbia at 35-24 with 2:35 remaining in the game. It capped off a methodical 12-play, 80-yard drive that spanned 5:37, and Lenhart's most meaningful contribution in over two years. He became the first player in nearly three years to rush for three touchdowns in a game.
 
"With football, things happen and with life things happen, and you just have to stay neutral. Be aware of the past, be grounded in the present, and control what you do next," Lenhart said. "I'm just going to do anything I can to help the team and get us a W because at the end of the day, it all comes down to winning, and I'm going to do that from here on out."
 
With the win, Columbia improved to 2-0 to start the season for the third time in the last four years and won its 10^th non-conference game in its last 12 games.

Georgetown's Holley completed 27 of 42 passes for 368 yards and a touchdown and Crayton finished with 190 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches.

For Columbia, Green threw for 125 yards on 11 of 16 completions, Ryan Young ran for 93 yards on 19 carries, and Miller totaled 86 rushing yards on seven carries. On defense, lineman Paul Akere, whose brother previously starred for the Hoyas, led Columbia's defense with eight tackles, 2.5 for loss, and a sack, sophomore linebacker CJ Brown and senior linebacker Justin Woodley each contributed seven tackles apiece, and Mathiasmeier made six tackles to go with his two interceptions.
 
This was the eighth game between the two schools, with Columbia holding a 5-3 advantage. The Lions have won three of the last four meetings in the Lou Little Cup, which was contested for the sixth time. Columbia's next "trophy" game is the Empire Cup vs. rival Cornell in the Empire State Bowl.
 
"It's significant," Bagnoli said. "It was a meaningful, hard fought win, against a good Patriot League school and, again, we played well enough to win but we also know we have a much higher ceiling that we're going to try to get to."
 
Matt Sugam has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam