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 ;-)
HANOVER – After Harvard rolled up 698 yards of offense and held Princeton scoreless until the final minute of last week’s romp in New Jersey it became clear that to beat the Crimson Saturday Dartmouth would have to play its best game.
Plain and simple, it didn’t.
The Big Green lost two fumbles and an interception while managing just one touchdown and a season-low 15 first downs against the Ivy League’s stingiest defense as the undefeated Crimson powered its way to a 23-12 win.
Harvard (7-0) took over sole possession of the Ivy League lead with its 11th consecutive win over Dartmouth. The Big Green dropped to 5-2 overall and into a three-way logjam for second in the Ivies with a 3-1 record.
“A game like this you’ve got to make a play,” a hoarse Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said afterward. “They made more than we did, and that’s the end result.”
Making the most plays for Harvard was hard-running Paul Stanton, who carried 24 times for 180 yards and two touchdowns without being taken down behind the line even one time.
Stanton, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound junior with a terrific burst and surprising strength, exploded for a career-high behind the Crimson’s overpowering offensive line. Ironically, his previous career high of 145 yards came in last year’s win over Dartmouth.
“He’s powerful, he’s explosive, he’ll kind of stay behind those big guys and then all of a sudden … he’s off the edge,” said Teevens. “He will exploit a hole real quickly and he’s very powerful. You see him in a pile and the pile moves, and we’ve got big guys falling off him.”
Harvard set the tone for the game on its opening possession, driving 75 yards in nine plays to take an early 7-0 lead. The Crimson showed excellent balance, passing for 38 yards and running for 37 on the first drive, with Stanton going over from the 3.
“That was huge,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy of the opening score. “It gave us, obviously, the distinct impression that as good a defensive unit as they are, we’ve got an outstanding offensive line. Paul is an outstanding back.
“We are a very balanced team so you have to defend the pass on every single snap and that combination allowed us to run the football against a team that was really doing a good job in the pass coverage today.”
Harvard finished with 237 yards rushing and 179 yards passing.
After going three-and-out on its first possession, Dartmouth scored its only touchdown of the day on its second. Dalyn Williams (16-of-26 for 210 yards and 37 net yards rushing) converted two third-down runs and passed for another as Dartmouth drove 72 yards on 14 plays.
Teaming with Williams on the drive was tailback, Kyle Bramble who caught a 20-yard pass on third-and-four, ran for 10 yards on a fourth-and-one at the Harvard 13, and then scored the touchdown on a two-yard run over right tackle to make it 7-6 with 52 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. It stayed that way when Ryan Delisle blocked the extra point.
Harvard, which shared the title with Princeton last year, then did what championship teams do and answered right back. Well-aware of Murphy’s fondness for trick plays, Dartmouth practiced defending the handoff-and-option pass during the week but the Crimson still managed to pull the play off for a touchdown against the Big Green for the second year in a row.
This time it was Semar Smith taking a handoff and running left, only to hand the ball to brother Seitu coming back across the field. The receiver pulled up near the hash marks to toss a 37-yard scoring pass to wide open tight end Anthony Firkser.
“We’d seen it in practice,” Teevens said of the play. “It wasn’t a complete surprise. It just surprised us at the moment. You’ve got to play each play and play your responsibility. Guys get excited and they want to do a little bit more than they should.”
Evan Chrustic blocked the Harvard PAT, leaving Dartmouth still within a touchdown at 13-6.
Although the Crimson lost dangerous dual-threat quarterback Conner Hempel to a shoulder injury early in the second quarter, it was the Crimson who would score next.
After a hard hit on a first-down completion to Victor Williams brought a fumble that turned the ball over to Harvard at the Dartmouth 23, Stanton and the Crimson’s big line took over again.
Following a short gain on a wide receiver reverse, Stanton carried four consecutive times, the last a two-yard run for a touchdown that made it 20-6 with the PAT.
Dartmouth responded with a 65-yard drive that lost momentum with a six-yard sack from the Harvard 12, and the Big Green had to settle for a 30-yard field goal by Alex Gakenheimer that made it 20-9 at the break.
Dartmouth had trailed previously unbeaten Yale, 24-14, at intermission earlier this season and gone on to a 38-31 win so no one in green was panicking.
“The thought at halftime was, we have been in this situation before,” said corner Vernon Harris. “We’ve been down before. We’ve certainly been in this situation plenty of times. We were just ready. We were hungry to go back out there and prove that we can definitely come back and win this game.”
The second half began with promise that they might do just that.
Aided by a 37-yard completion to Bramble down the right sideline, Dartmouth took the third-quarter kickoff and marched to the Harvard 6. But Dalyn Williams lost the ball on a third-down run and while the Big Green recovered it had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Gakenheimer that made it a one-possession game again, at 20-12.
When Troy Donahue made a diving interception in front of the Dartmouth sideline to stop a Harvard drive at the Big Green 28, Murphy pulled backup quarterback Scott Hosch and reinserted Hempel, who had returned to the field after an X-ray proved negative. He would play the rest of the way.
Like Harvard, Dartmouth had to go to backup quarterback Alex Park when Williams was poked in the eye on the first series of the fourth quarter. Ironically the junior, who usually plays with a clear visor on his helmet, had taken it off after warmups because it was fogging up in the light rain.
Williams returned to the game for two plays after being hurt, but following a run of 12 yards and another for no gain he went to the sidelines for good.
He could only watch helplessly as Harvard restored the two-possession margin by driving 68 yards in 11 plays, the last a 33-yard field goal by Andrew Flesher with exactly six minutes remaining.
Dartmouth tried to answer as Park completed four-of-six throws to drive the Big Green to midfield, but Harvard linebacker Matt Koran’s hit jarred the ball loose from Bo Patterson a fraction of a second before he hit the ground on 12-yard completion and the Crimson recovered with 4:27 showing.
Dartmouth forced a three-and-out to get the ball with 2:37 left but after two Park completions Harvard’s Jordan Becerra sealed the Crimson win with an interception near midfield with 1:56 left.
“Harvard is a good football team,” said Teevens. “We had certainly high expectations and are disappointed with the outcome. I thought my guys played hard. We did some very good things, but just not enough of them.”
Dartmouth will return to action Saturday at 0-7 Cornell, which gave Princeton a surprisingly good game before falling, 38-27. Harvard, meanwhile, will be home to face winless Columbia, which dropped a 25-7 decision to Yale.
