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| We had such a relaxing time last year we are headed back to our perch above the Pacific. |
So what's up?
Paying for two kids in college, for the past few years our trips to Ithaca for the Cornell game pretty much sufficed as our vacations. Then, a year ago at this time, we took advantage of Sister BGA's generous Christmas gift of airline vouchers and flew to San Diego for a week of camping on a cliff over the Pacific Ocean.
Sister BGA treated us again this Christmas and after considering Florida, Galveston and Arizona we decided we couldn't do any better than pitch a tent over the ocean right where we did a year ago. So we're on our way out there again for a much-anticipated break from the northeast weather.
That said, except for the occasional open wi-fi, when we grab something at Jack In The Box or In And Out Burger, I'll be out of touch until March 5.
In the meantime, read about last season and get excited for what's to come in 2015. As always, game stories like these will be accompanied each week in the fall by a sidebar, and a follow on Sunday, with The Optimist and Pessimist on Monday. There will be stories from every practice during the week and a preview and Fearful Forecast on Fridays.
(If this sounds like an ad, that's exactly what it is. While the airfare was taken care of, our campsite, the car rental and other expenses were not and we've still got one in college ;-)
Without further ado . . .
The Central Connecticut Game
HANOVER – Coaches say it all the time. Teams make their biggest stride between their first and second games.
Dartmouth might have made its biggest improvement between the first and second halves of Saturday night’s 35-25 win over Central Connecticut State.
Trailing 19-7 with time running down in the opening half, the Big Green cut into the deficit on a touchdown with 1:04 left in the opening half and then outscored the Blue Devils, 21-7, over the final 30 minutes to earn the win.
Dalyn Williams passed for 216 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 75 yards and another score as Dartmouth won its opener for the fifth year in a row.
Central Connecticut outgained the Big Green, 475-391 but fell to 1-3 with its third consecutive loss since beating Towson on Aug. 30.
“It is nice to win your opener,” said Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens. “It’s not the cleanest we’ve played. I expect us to play much better on both sides of the football. The nice thing was, after a very sloppy first half we came back and played better the second half.”
After forcing a three-and-out on Central’s opening possession Dartmouth took over at its 45 and seven plays and 55 yards later had a 7-0 lead courtesy of a 14-yard pass from Williams to running back Kyle Bramble.
The rout was on.
And then it wasn’t.
Central proceeded to drive 62 yards for a touchdown on the ensuing possession, then forced a Williams fumble and went 26 yards for another. Although the Blue Devils had their first PAT blocked by Evan Chrustic and came up empty on a two-point conversion when they scored again, the rambunctous Dartmouth crowd of 7,234 was growing quiet.
After stalling out on its next series, Central came right back and marched 81 yards in 15 plays to forge a 12-point lead.
The rout was on.
And then it wasn’t.
A 31-yard kickoff return by Kirby Schoenthaler set the Big Green up at its 34 with 2:28 left in the half. A 25-yard screen pass to Bramble on first down and a 14-yard completion to Ryan McManus on back-to-back snaps had Dartmouth on the Central 27.
The Big Green then caught a break when Williams’ pass in a crowd down the middle ended up in McManus’ hands at the 3. Bramble got the points on a two-yard run up the middle that made it 19-14 at the break –with Dartmouth getting the ball to start the second half.
“That last drive of the first half was a big drive for them,” said first-year CCSU coach Pete Rossomando. “They don’t put that in the end zone it’s a different game coming out in the second half.”
But they did put it in the end zone, and it was a different game in the second half.
“It was huge,” Teevens said of the late touchdown. “Because we didn’t do much offensively or defensively. It was the first drive we went down and put points on the board and it’s, ‘OK, this is how it is going to go all night long.’ And that’s not how it went.”
But over a four-possession span it did.
After finishing the first half with a touchdown Dartmouth proceeded to score on its next three possessions by going 75 yards, 77 yards and 91 yards as it built a 35-19 lead early in the fourth quarter.
The first of the three TDs came on a 20-yard pass tight end Blake Orvis couldn’t quite reach that ended up in Bo Patterson’s hands behind him.
The second TD of the third quarter was a 19-yard strike to McManus, who barely got his foot down crossing out of the end zone, a play that would have sent the officials scurrying to the sideline monitor if the Ivy League were using replays on close calls.
The Big Green’s third consecutive – and final – TD of the night came after a holding penalty nullified a screen pass that Bramble had taken into the end zone from 18 yards out.
Undeterred, Williams tucked the ball away on the very next snap, slipped through the middle of the CCSU line, broke left and sprinted 28 yards into the end zone for a 16-point Dartmouth lead.
Stung by the Big Green’s 28-point run and an injury to dangerous running quarterback Tavion Pauldo, who had been alternating successfully with passing quarterback Nick SanGiacomo, Central could have folded in the fourth quarter. It didn’t.
The Blue Devils went 70 yards in 11 plays to make it a 10-point game with 7:13 still remaining. Then, after forcing back-to-back three-and-outs, they took over at their 30 with 2:46 left. Down 10 points, they needed a touchdown, a PAT, and a field goal to force OT. Or two TDs to win.
It looked as if they might get the touchdown and have a chance to make things really interesting when consecutive completions of 25 and 20 yards gave them a first down at the Big Green 10 with two minutes still to go.
But the Dartmouth defense bowed up and made the stop. Eric Wickham tackled Rob Hollomon at the six on first down, and brought Hollomon down for a loss of two on a second-down completion. Then it was Zach Slafsky’s turn to successfully defend a pass toward Hollomon at the side of the end zone.
Central’s last gasp came when SanGiacomo’s fourth-down throw went incomplete. Dartmouth had finally locked up an important win with a tough contest at New Hampshire next on the agenda.
“You’ve got a game under your belt,” Teevens said of the opener. “You can say what you want about the scrimmage against Harvard, it’s not a game. (After you) come down and have to do things and come from behind . . . and then get it right in the end, you expect to play better (next week).
“Like we said at the end of the ballgame, the guys know we can play better football and we’ll need to against a Top-25 team.”
NOTES – In his first game since offseason ACL surgery, Bramble led both teams with 89 yards and one touchdown rushing while adding four receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown through the air...McManus led all receivers with six catches for 117 yards and one touchdown in his first game back after missing the last eight games a year ago with a concussion.
Troy Donahue topped Dartmouth with 13 tackles while Slafsky had nine and Wickham eight…Hollomon, the national offensive player of the week after the win over Towson, had 75 yards rushing but was held to 3.1 yards per attempt with a long of just eight.
Central had 26 first downs to 22 for Dartmouth and held the ball for 37 minutes, 38 seconds to Dartmouth’s 22:22, but the Big Green won by scoring five touchdowns in five visits to the red zone while the Blue Devils came up empty on three of their seven trips.