Hope From A Ram Tough Team

Dartmouth fans, players and others possibly battling doubt after a 3-7 season might want to consider the case of Patriot League champion Fordham. The lede of the New York Times story about the Rams' NCAA playoff game at UMass pretty much tells the story:

Coming off a 3-8 season last year, the Fordham Rams simply wanted to be respectable this fall.

They were a lot more than that, of course, outlasting Holy Cross and Colgate in the Patriot Leage, advancing to the FCS playoffs and throwing a heckuva scare at No. 7 Massachusetts before wearing down at the end of a 49-35 game in Amherst. We were at the game and though they were statistically outplayed, the Rams were tied with the Minutemen in the fourth quarter, 35-35. Sitting in the crowd and watching a team from the Patriot League put up a terrific fight was one more reminder of exactly what the Ivy League is missing. Too bad.

Speaking of too bad, this one will resonate with Dartmouth fans who still lament the season-opening loss to Colgate. As College Sporting News reports, James Madison was at the Appalachian State 5 with less than 30 seconds remaining with a chance to kick the winning field goal and score a huge upset in the FCS playoffs yesterday. Instead, the Dukes decided to run one more play, lost the ball and ended up losing the game.

There was a heartbreaker on tap for New Hampshire later in the day as well. The Wildcats, who snuck in the back door of the playoffs with four losses, traveled to undefeated No. 1 Northern Iowa and fought back from a 31-21 deficit to eventually take the lead on 75-yard drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown run with 1:19 to play. But the game wasn't over, as the lede from the Concord Monitor reports:

Ricky Santos did it again, so did the University of New Hampshire defense.

That's right. With no timeouts remaining, UNI drove 71 yards to win the game on a 24-yard TD pass with seven seconds remaining. That's a tremendously heartbreaking way for Santos' career to end.

Speaking of heartbreaking, the Dartmouth men's soccer team saw a 1-0 lead evaporate on a penalty kick brought about by a hand-ball in the final minute of yesterday's NCAA Tournament game against Vermont. Two scoreless overtimes followed by penalty kicks saw UVM take a 4-3 win and advance in the tournament. Ironically, Dartmouth scored in the first minute of the game the same way UVM scored in the last minute of regulation: on a penalty kick resulting from a hand-ball.