Editor's Note: Each day while Team BGA is soaking up some warm weather this site will repost game stories that appeared on the BGA Premium site last fall. Typos have been fixed and minor editing has cleaned up what was deadline writing ;-)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Dalyn Williams wasn’t in a mood to celebrate.
Don’t get the wrong idea. Williams was feeling pretty good about things after throwing for 388 yards and three touchdowns, running for one TD and thoroughly frustrating Yale defenders with critical third-down runs while helping Dartmouth ring up a 38-31 victory Saturday afternoon.
It’s just that Big Green’s junior quarterback, who cracked up the postgame press conference by mentioning he was hungry, didn’t think anyone should have expected a different outcome.
Even if Yale had been undefeated.
Even if the Big Green found itself in an early 21-7 hole.
Even if the Bulldogs had knocked off FBS Army the last time they played at the Yale Bowl.
Even if the Big Green just beat a Yale team that came into the game averaging 51 points a game and 631 yards of total offense, both tops in the nation.
Even if a 2-0 Ivy League record positions Dartmouth very nicely in the conference race and the 3-1 overall record matches the Big Green’s best four-game start since 1997.
“It’s two down, we’ve got five more to go,” said a ho-hum Williams. “There’s no time to celebrate…. This was expected.”
Dartmouth tied a back-and-forth game on a 35-yard field goal by Alex Gakenheimer with 7:30 remaining, got the ball back by forcing a three-and-out, and then took the lead for good on an 11-play, 63-yard drive capped by Williams' two-yard run with 2:20 to go.
Yale made things interesting by driving from its own 19 to the Dartmouth 37 with 1:15 left before three consecutive incompletions sealed the Bulldogs’ fate.
“Yale is a good football team,” said Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens. “Certainly they are ranked No. 1 in the country in terms of point production and yardage. We knew it was going to be a great challenge. We had to play well.”
Which they did, although the Bulldogs looked as good as their press clippings at the start, driving 59, 59 and 80 yards for touchdowns on their first three possessions
Williams’ 39-yard throw to Bo Patterson in the right corner of the end zone drew Dartmouth into a 7-7 tie midway through the first quarter, but as the midway point of the second quarter approached the Big Green was back down, 21-7.
Lighting the fuse for the Dartmouth comeback was senior Ryan McManus (12 catches for 188 yards and one touchdown), who fielded a Yale punt at the Big Green 40, squirted through the first line of tacklers and sprinted down the right side for a 60-yard return that made it 21-14 with 7:08 left in the half.
Although a 36-yard field goal would give Yale the 24-14 lead it would take into the locker room no one in a Dartmouth uniform was raising a white flag.
“The big thing at the half was just, hey, settle down,” Teevens said. “It’s not a panic state. There’s 30 more minutes to play. We have the ability to do the things we talked about. Just do your job.”
Which they hadn’t done particularly well in the first 30 minutes.
“We had a couple of picks we dropped,” Teevens said of the Big Green’s play in the opening half. “We had a penalty down in the end zone which ended up resulting in a Yale score. Don’t hurt ourselves. And then offensively, settle down. We got a little jittery and weren’t throwing the ball real well. We weren’t protecting real well. We just couldn’t run the ball an inch.
“It was, take a deep breath, get back to basics and fundamentals and execute. That’s what we did.”
Dartmouth got the first points of the second half after Vernon Harris intercepted Morgan Roberts (25-for-41 for 302 yards, three interceptions) at the Big Green 29 on a fourth-and-two pass. Five plays after a 42-yard completion to McManus, Williams found tailback Kyle Bramble wide open on a second-and-goal play from the 4, and that quickly Dartmouth was within 24-21.
Four minutes and a Yale three-and-out later, the Big Green had its first lead of the day.
Taking over at it own 17, Dartmouth got a 27-yard completion to Brian Grove on one play and a 17-yard run by the speedy tailback on the next, advancing the ball to the Yale 31.
After a one-yard completion to McManus, the sure-handed receiver got a step on Yale corner Dale Harris and Williams floated the ball into his arms for a 30-yard TD. With Gakenheimer’s kick Dartmouth was finally in front, 28-24, late in the third period.
The lead wouldn’t last long.
Aided by a blown coverage that saw tight end Leo Haenni get free down the middle for a 47-yard completion, Yale drove 84 yards for a one-yard touchdown run by Tyler Varga (20 carries for 105 yards) and a 31-28 lead two plays into the fourth quarter.
Stephen Dazzo’s diving interception of a batted pass at the Yale 46 set up the drive that led to Gakenheimer’s field goal that tied the game at 21, setting the stage for the final drama.
Three Yale plays that netted no yards and an offside penalty left Bulldogs punter Brian Holmes kicking with his back to the goal line and the Big Green with the potential of getting excellent field position. But Holmes’ kick soared 48 yards and with excellent coverage pushing return man McManus back four more yards, Dartmouth was forced to start at its own 37.
Three plays keyed what would be the winning drive.
On third-and-10 from the 37, Williams tossed a 40-yard pass to a well-covered McManus on the left sideline for a first down at the Yale 25.
On third-and-five at the 20, Williams tucked and ran for a seven yards and a first down at the 13.
And after a third-down completion to Kirby Schoenthaler came up one yard short of a first down it was Teevens and offensive coordinator Keith Clark calling Williams’ number and the solid 210-yard QB burying himself into the line, and, after at first appearing to be stopped, picking up the first down on a big second effort.
A nifty fake on a run from the three and Williams was crossing into the end zone. Dartmouth then made the final stop that sealed its biggest win in 17 years.
“We put ourselves in a hole and were able to climb out of it,” said Teevens. “We made some plays. It was fun just to see the maturation. Rather than panic it was, OK, we’ve got to go back and execute. We really could have said, Hey, we’re in trouble.
“It was just execution on both sides of the ball and certainly special teams. It was a big win for Dartmouth.”
And a bitter loss for Yale, which now has its back against the wall in a league that has seen a team with two conference losses win the championship just a couple of times.
“We had a chance at the start of the second half to put them away and we didn’t do it,” said Yale coach Tony Reno in a statement that might raise a few Dartmouth eyebrows. “So we let them hang around and they made some plays in the second half. We didn’t get off the field on defense and we didn’t convert on offense in some situations.
“It’s a tie game and they made a play at the end and we don’t…. They are a very good football team and when you have a chance to put a team like that away you’ve got to do it.”
Which is exactly what Dartmouth did.
The Big Green now returns home to face Holy Cross in a Homecoming matchup Saturday. Yale will be home against Colgate.
