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 YORK CITY -- Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens didn’t waste any syllables summing up Dartmouth’s 27-7 win over Columbia on a gorgeous day at the northern tip of Manhattan.
“It was a win,” he said. “Every win is a good one. So now we head back home.”
Sixteen words issued in a clipped voice should tell you everything you need to know about what might have been an undistinguished performance, but one that lifted the Big Green (5-1) to 3-0 in the Ivy League heading into Saturday’s showdown with Harvard (6-0, 3-0). The winner will have sole possession of first place in the conference.
Columbia, which is in the midst of its worst stretch of football since going winless in 44 games in the mid-1980s, fell to 0-6 and 0-3 with its 17th consecutive loss.
With starting quarterback Dalyn Williams sidelined by a slight pull, Alex Park started his first game since Harvard two years ago. The senior played the whole way, completing 29-of-42 passes for 268 yards with two touchdowns for the Big Green, which scored on every first-half possession except two that were ended by interceptions.
But after building a 24-7 lead over the first 30 minutes Dartmouth could muster only a field goal in the second half against a Columbia team that had surrendered 44.2 points per game in the first half of the season.
In Dartmouth’s defense, it marched to the Lion 1 and 2 on its final two drives of the game, coming up short on a fourth-down run the first time, and letting the clock run out to end the game on the second.
For the first time all season the Big Green collected more yards (432-326) and more first downs (28-16) than an opponent, but for the second week in row it struggled to land that final knockout blow.
“We went out the first drive of the game and did really well,” said offensive lineman Jacob Flores. “Then I think we got complacent. We didn’t have that same attacking edge after that. But give them credit. They did some good things on defense, switching things up in the second half.”
Big Green junior Kyle Bramble topped the 100-yard mark for the second week in a row, running for a career-high 126 yards and one touchdown and catching six passes. Ryan McManus once again led Dartmouth with seven grabs for 76 yards while Victor Williams caught six passes for 68 yards and the first two touchdowns of his career.
While Park took the first-team snaps during practice leading up to the game, he didn’t learn for sure he would be stepping in for Williams until the bus ride down from Hanover on Friday. Williams probably could have played, Teevens acknowledged, but with Harvard on the horizon the Columbia game was a perfect opportunity to get Williams healthy and get Park some much-needed action.
“I give Alex a lot of credit,” the coach said. “He’s been watching Dalyn for a number of years now. … He was plugged in the whole time in support of the team, in support of his teammates. He’s a good leader for us. … To have him have an opportunity his senior year, I was happy for him.”
So was classmate Bo Patterson, who was on the receiving end of four Park aerials for 58 yards.
“I honestly think we have the two best quarterbacks in the league,” he said. “Alex did a great job out there.”
Park completed four of his first five passes before Bramble took an option pitch and tiptoed down the right sideline 33 yards for a 7-0 lead just 3:19 into the game.
Dartmouth’s second drive was shortcircuited when Park’s long throw toward Williams hung up in the breeze and was picked off. But after a three-and-out and a shanked Columbia punt that covered just 10 yards Park hit four consecutive passes, engineering a 54-yard march that was capped by Alex Gakenheimer’s 29-yard field goal.
Another three-and-out for the Lions and six consecutive Park completions later -- the last an 11-yarder to Victor Williams on a slant over the middle for the touchdown -- and Dartmouth had a 17-point bulge.
But just when it seemed the rout was on, Trevor Bell returned his second interception 32 yards to the Dartmouth 23. Columbia did its best to hurt itself with three penalties but quarterback Trevor McDonagh gunned a nine-yard pass to Andrew Dobitsch to make it a 10-point game again.
Dartmouth answered right back after a 56-yard Kirby Schoenthaler kickoff return. With 47 seconds left in the half, Park found Williams again, this time from 13 yards out to restore the 17-point lead.
Park finished the half 19-of-25 for 159 yards.
“I thought he played well,” said Teevens, who felt the quarterback was intercepted trying to make a play when a play wasn’t there to be made. “Sometimes a guy is just so excited to have an opportunity and wants to do so well. And then he settled down in the second half.”
The only points of the second half came after Vernon Harris picked off McDonagh in front of the Dartmouth bench and returned the interception 29 yard to the Columbia 24 late in the third period. Six plays and 17 yards later Gakenheimer came out and knocked a 24-yarder through the wickets.
The Lions marched twice deep into Big Green territory in the fourth quarter, but Will McNamara ended the first drive with an interception and Dartmouth’s bend-don’t-break defense kicked in and stopped the second after Columbia had driven from its own 1 to the 6 with 5:26 left.
The Lions didn’t exactly help their own cause with 10 penalties and two interceptions while going two-of-13 on third down conversions.
“Too many penalties in critical situations put us behind on downs,” said an embattled but proud Columbia coach Pete Mangurian. “A couple of drops. Turnovers at the wrong end of the field, not that there’s a good end. … But there are spots in the game that we can build on, feel good about. Things that happened out there that haven’t happened around here in a while. I certainly can’t fault their effort.
“I think this quells any rumors about this team not being committed to turning this thing and getting it the way we want it to go. I challenge anybody to say that they didn’t see every kid on the field playing as hard as he could possibly play and doing everything he could do until the end of the game. So we’ll take that for what it’s worth. To me it’s worth a lot, but ultimately the goal is to win the game and that didn’t happen.”
It did for Dartmouth, which is why Teevens wasn’t complaining despite the Big Green struggling more than he would have liked seven days before a critical contest against the defending Ivy League co-champions.
“We come away with a win and at the end of the day that’s what we’ll look at,” the glass-is-always-half-full coach said. “There are teaching points we will enforce with our players and we’ll play better next weekend.”