Slip Sliding Away Until ...

• A big early lead over a strong favorite.
• A headline-grabbing upset slipping away as the favorite comes roaring back.

Dartmouth's game against Colgate? Yes.

But also New Hampshire's game against FBS team Marshall later the same afternoon.

Despite leading 24-0 at the half and 31-7 in the third quarter, UNH was in serious trouble as the fourth quarter wound down. With its lead shaved to 41-35 and the defense leaking oil, the Wildcats did what any smart team would do. They turned the game over to Ricky Santos & Co.

From a story in Foster's Daily Democrat:

As the lead was shrinking, coach Sean McDonnell was thinking "just one stop."
In this case the best defense — which surrendered 35 second-half points — turned out to be a ball-control offense. ... The Wildcats covered 70 yards and took more than five and a half minutes to score the clinching touchdown in their 48-35 win Saturday over Marshall.

Santos, who completed 23-of-33 throws for 289 yards and three touchdowns while running for 45 yards and another touchdown, has been honored as the national FCS offensive player of the week by The Sports Network and College Sporting News.

Dartmouth wasn't as fortunate, of course, as Colgate came back from a 28-0 deficit to defeat the Big Green in overtime, 31-28. Ironically, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens and Harvard coach Tim Murphy, his high school teammate in Massachusetts, now have one more thing in common.

In 2000, Murphy's Harvard team ran out to a 28-0 halftime lead over Cornell. With a chance to put the Big Red out of its misery, the Crimson drove inside the 30 before fumbling the ball away. What did it matter? A lot, it turned out. Cornell reeled off the next 29 points to take a one-point lead late.

Harvard then drove inside the 10 and seemed a lock to kick the winning field goal. (Sound familiar?) But while Dartmouth fumbled on the final play from scrimmage and didn't get to try a kick, the Crimson did. And it was blocked. Final score: Cornell 29, Harvard 28.

Dartmouth and Harvard (against Holy Cross) both lost nailbiters to Patriot League teams in the opening week. The Daily Pennsylvanian notes that the Patriot League went 5-2 against the Ivies last week, surpassing last year's win total for the conference against Ivy foes on one Saturday. A year ago the Ivies had a 14-4 advantage in the series. There are still 11 games remaining between the conferences.

The Ivy League office has its weekend previews up. Find the Dartmouth-UNH preview here.

Watching Dartmouth jayvee games is always interesting. Milford Academy, for example, has had players headed to places like West Virginia, Miami, Iowas and Penn State in recent years. It's fun to see what happens to them.

I'll be honest with you, I didn't expect to run across the name of a player I recognized from the jayvee game with Middlebury a year ago in the big-time, but there it is. Steve Hauschka, a placekicker for the Panthers last year, is the starting kicker this year as a graduate student at North Carolina State. Find a story about how a kid who graduates from Middlebury ends up kicking for an FBS school here. While I had no idea the Club Midd kicker was going on, it was clear a year ago that he was a major talent as his booming placements just about drew rain. I remember telling a few people he'd look awfully good in a Dartmouth uniform.

Dartmouth practice resumes today. Look for a postmortem on the Colgate game and a recap of the afternoon session tonight on Green Alert premium.