This is the one you were afraid was coming with the Ivy League's fall season canceled:
I can't thank Dartmouth enough for the incredible experience. That being said, my recruitment is now open. I look forward to an opportunity to further my academic and athletic career as a graduate transfer.https://t.co/7DPBRddwBr
— Drew Estrada (@drewestrada) October 10, 2020
A 6-foot, 190-pound Swiss Army Knife of a football player, Drew Estrada (bio) was named to the Phil Steele Preseason All-Ivy League team at four positions this fall and to Steele's All-America team at two.
He wraps up his Dartmouth career with 110 catches for 1,418 yards and 10 touchdowns, 71 rushes for 468 yards and two touchdowns, 15 punt returns for 255 yards and a touchdown, 13 kickoff returns for 251 yards and 2,392 all-purpose yards. He also completed one of two passes for 34 yards.
Check out his highlights:
LaMastra reluctantly entered the NCAA transfer portal, soon deciding on Northwestern as his landing spot. It’s another school well-renowned in academics and even represents a step up in terms of competition in the pool, but the emotional effects of leaving behind friends and teammates at a place he loved still resonate.
To be clear, Dartmouth has said the decision to drop the swim, golf and lightweight rowing programs was not driven by the pandemic, but that didn't make it any easier for the athletes as this outtake from the story suggests:
Dartmouth’s decision upended short- and long-term plans for dozens of athletes and led LaMastra to what he called the “worst decision” he’s ever had to make. He was faced to pick between being with the people he loved at a school he’d grown to adore, or looking elsewhere to pursue his swimming career, a sport that he said makes him happy and gives him purpose.
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Dartmouth replayed the 2015 win over Penn in Week Four of its "Woods Watch Party" yesterday. Here's the BGA Premium story as it appeared on the site the night of the game"
Dartmouth 41, Penn 20
Williams And Williams Way Too Much For Overmatched Penn
BGA Premium, Oct. 3, 2015
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – A case can be made that Penn dodged a bullet last week by not having to face arguably the best FCS quarterback in the nation.
Then again, a case can be made that the Quakers faced one who might be even better Saturday and they paid the price for it.
Dartmouth’s Dalyn Williams completed 22-of-24 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns and ran 13 times for a team-high 73 yards and two more scores in the Big Green’s never-in-doubt 41-20 thrashing of Penn.
Dartmouth, which has topped the 40-point mark in back-to-back games and hasn’t punted in the first half in either one, is now 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.
Penn, which was coming off a stunning upset of No. 4 Villanova, is 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the Ivy League.
Dartmouth senior Victor Williams caught 12 balls for 213 yards and two touchdowns in another outstanding game but the day belonged to the other Williams, whose 91.7 percent completion rate broke Bill King’s 53-year-old single-game school record of 87.5 percent.
Williams now has completed 60-of-80 passes (75 percent) for 779 yards with six touchdowns and not a hint of an interception this fall. He’s also Dartmouth’s leading rusher.
“A weapon like that,” said Penn coach Ray Priore, “he beats you many different ways.”
Williams was 12-of-13 for 148 yards with two touchdowns through the air and two on the ground in the first half as Dartmouth jumped out to a 27-6 lead. His lone miss came when he was under heavy pressure and he wisely tossed the ball over the Penn bench to avoid a sack.
It was one of the few times all game that the Quakers had him in trouble.
Thanks to a standout performance by the rapidly maturing Dartmouth offensive line for most of the game Williams looked like Washington crossing the nearby Delaware as he calmly surveyed the field for open receivers.
“The key was our inability to get pressure on the quarterback,” said Priore. “I think once you got him moving a little bit, that breaks things down. But our standard four-man stuff was not getting there.”
Credit for that, according to Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, goes to the Big Green’s play up front.
“They were the big question mark in preseason,” he admitted. “I’m really happy to see guys like Zach Davis and Josh Clark really coming through. Niko Mamula had played before but Zach Davis in particular hadn’t seen a whole lot of time and there was really a question.
“They’ve got a formidable front and we did a pretty good job holding the fort against them. I’m excited for those guys because they were somewhat maligned. A big question, but they are doing a great job for us so far.”
Dartmouth wasted no time taking a lead it would not relinquish as AJ Zuttah separated running back Tre Solomon from the ball on the Quakers’ third play after the opening kickoff and safety David Caldwell recovered at the Penn 32.
After a five-yard Ryder Stone carry, a 17-yard completion to Victor Williams and a two-yard Stone run, William looked, and looked, and looked some more before zipping a throw down the middle to his namesake for a seven-yard touchdown.
The Big Green offense touched the ball four times in the first half and recorded touchdowns each time. Dalyn Williams ran in from the nine and then took the snap under center and snuck in from the one for the second and third touchdowns. He capped a near-perfect half by tossing a perfect 22-yard rainbow to Houston Brown, who caught the ball in the corner of the end zone with his back to the QB.
“When you play with a quarterback like that it makes everything a lot easier,” said Victor Williams. “The ball is there. You really don’t have to work to catch the ball and make a spectacular catch. All you’ve got to do is make sure you are in the right place.”
Brown’s touchdown made it 27-0 with seven minutes still remaining in the second quarter. At that point Penn had a grand total of 18 yards of offense and had yet to register a first down.
The Quakers got their initial first down with 5:31 left in the half and, benefiting from a debatable pass interference against Vernon Harris on a ball thrown just about into the stands, got on the board with a one-yard run with 36 seconds to go before halftime.
It took Dartmouth even less time to score at the start of the second half than it had to start the first.
A 35-yard Danny McManus kickoff return to begin the third quarter, a 22-yard completion to Stone, and a 30-yard strike to Brown made it 34-6 just 1:06 into the period of a game that all-but confirmed Dartmouth’s place as one of the Ivy League’s 2015 elites.
“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” said Priore. “Dalyn Williams is a very, very talented person. We’ve been trying to handle him for a number of years. . . .
“In this league, my experience has been when you have a senior-dominated team like they do that typically bodes pretty well for them as they go into the season.”
After a missed field goal ended Dartmouth’s run of touchdowns on every possession the Big Green went right back to work. A form tackle for a two-yard loss on a Penn third-and-one by Will McNamara brought a three-and-out. Dartmouth then drove 76 yards in eight plays, the last a 43-yard Williams-to-Williams connection to make it 41-6 with 37 seconds left in the third quarter.
Held to a woeful 117 yards of total offense through three quarters, Penn scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to make the final a little more respectable.
Dartmouth is now off to its first 3-0 start since 1997, the last time it won at Franklin Field.
“It’s one game into the Ivy schedule,” said Teevens. “The outside schedule, we made some progress there. We just want to get better as a football team and week to week we have.”
They’ll have another shot next week when they have a showdown with Yale, which improved to 3-0 Saturday with a win over Lehigh.
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EXTRA POINT
Mrs. BGA and I took advantage of one of the last glorious Saturdays of the fall to take a mini-hike up Roaring Ridge Trail in nearby Corinth, Vt., yesterday morning. After spending a little time enjoying the view at the summit we stopped by a little indoor farm stand to buy some baked goods. This sign was on the outside of the stand:
