Patriot Games

A few notes heading into Saturday's game at Holy Cross ...

The Morning Call notes that after going 4-14 against the Ivy League last year, the Patriot League is 8-6 in the series this year. Dartmouth-HC is one of four of the inter-league games this weekend. The others are Colgate at Cornell, Lafayette at Harvard and Lehigh at Yale. ... The Call also points out that Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph is now second in the nation with 26.8 completions per game, fourth in total offense and sixth in passing yardage per game.

From the Holy Cross website: "Dominic Randolph Wins Boston Globe Gold Helmet." The award is presented to the Division I and Division II-III players of the week in New England. Randolph staked his claim by throwing for six touchdowns and 404 yards against Brown. Editor's Note: I'll be the selector for the award after the games of Oct. 27.

The College Sporting News has updated its Gridiron Power Index (a BCS-type synthesization of various polls and rankings). This is a good poll/ranking to put a little faith in ;-). Here's how Dartmouth and its opponents rank this week:

13-Yale
14-New Hampshire
27-Holy Cross
36-Harvard
45-Colgate
64-Cornell
72-Princeton
76-Dartmouth
84-Penn
85-Brown
103-Columbia

Northern Iowa is No. 1, and LaSalle is last at No. 122.

Not that you'd necessarily want to, but you can watch a nine-second YouTube clip of a run by Yale's Ricardo Galvez against Dartmouth last week by clicking here.

Results as of 8:15 this morning from the Daily Pennsylvanian poll on whether football coach Al Bagnoli should be fired:

• Yes 24 percent
• No 62 percent
• I don't know 15 percent

On a bookshelf right next to my desk I have a copy of the Oct. 1, 2001 Sports Illustrated with a picture of Jay Fiedler on the cover. I bring that up because the Vancouver Sun has a piece about the SI Jinx. The story has a chronology of SI Jinx victims, of which the former Dartmouth quarterback was one. It reports: "In his next game, Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler has two fumbles and two interceptions in a 42-10 loss to the Rams."

If you are curious how Big Green teams other than football are performing this fall, check out this story in the Daily Dartmouth.

Away from the playing field, today's Daily Pennsylvanian has an interesting story about sometimes odd gifts presented to the university. A gas station, a trolley, cows and horses are among those items mentioned.

And finally ... that certain 8th grader's football team gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown on the first play of the game and a punt return for a touchdown after its initial series yesterday to fall behind 12-0 before the other team had taken a snap. It was 20-0 after the first quarter but only 26-6 at the end. Could've been worse. The 8th-grader played the entire way at cornerback and alternated plays at wide receiver. ...

The certain Hanover High sophomore helped her field hockey team improve to 8-4-1 with a 3-0 win yesterday. They close out the regular season today at undefeated rival Lebanon, where she'll be asked once again to defend the fastest field hockey player you're likely to see. Word is it that the player she's guarding has received a Division I scholarship as a sprinter.