PROVIDENCE — Brown wide receiver Bobby Sewall of Portsmouth caught touchdown passes of 52 and 33 yards yesterday, helping the Bears to a 27-7 victory over Cornell that improved their Ivy League record to 3-0 for the first time in the school’s history.

The Bears are 4-2 overall while Cornell fell to 3-3 and 1-2 in Ivy play.

Brown had never gotten off to a 3-0 start in 52 years of Ivy competition.

The win also sets up next Saturday’s league showdown with Penn, the only other unbeaten team in the Ivies (3-0), at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

After a slow start, during which he completed just one pass for four yards in the first quarter, senior quarterback Michael Dougherty got untracked and completed 20 of 37 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns.

“We got off to a sluggish start and were a bit tentative at the start,” said Brown head coach Phil Estes. “Once Bobby Sewall, Mike Dougherty and Buddy Farnham started to make big plays we got the momentum back. The touchdown pass to Bobby over the top of the Cornell defense was a really big play.”

Sewall finished the game with 11 receptions for 181 yards, including a spectacular 52-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter that gave Brown the lead for good, and a 33-yard touchdown grab in the fourth quarter to help salt away the victory.

With Brown clinging to a 13-7 advantage after three quarters, the fourth quarter belonged to Bears senior running back Dereck Knight of Pawtucket, who ran for 62 of his game-high 80 yards in the period.

Brown’s defense set the tone by making nine tackles for losses and two quarterback sacks. Senior Miles Craigwell made seven solo tackles, forced a fumble and made two tackles for losses for the Bears.

Craigwell wasn’t the only hero for the Brown defense. Jon May made eight tackles and linebacker Steve Ziogas made six hits and a tackle for a loss of eight yards. Nkosi Still and defensive back Robert Gillett each made six tackles. Wale Adedokun had a sack for the Bears to go along with two tackles.

Farnham had a two-yard TD run.