In an encore that befit the brilliance he displayed so frequently throughout his college career, Jay Fiedler '94 pushed the Dartmouth football team beyond ridiculous to utter lunacy one final time.
Just when it seemed Mr. Wunderwing had finally run out of miracles, he came up with the most improbable resurrection of a ludicrous season as he threw for two touchdowns and rushed for one more in the final 8 minutes, 34 seconds of Saturday's battle for second place with Princeton to lead Dartmouth from a 14-point deficit to a 28-22 stunning of the Tigers.
The final clash of the Ivy League's two once-in-a-decade superstars -- Fiedler and Princeton running back Keith Elias --netted a game worthy of all its considerable billing.
But in the end The Gunner bested The Runner for the third straight year as Fiedler came up with all the answers while Elias, for all his shredding of Dartmouth's limp-along defensive line, could only stare with the same incredulous amazement as the other 9,120 spectators at a magnificent manifestation of one individual's will to win and the efforts of an entire team to equal that intensity.
To be sure, Elias owned the first three quarters of the game, but as he has proven all year, Fiedler only needs one quarter to win a football game. It was only the second time in Elias's career that he had rushed for more than 100 yards and lost.
"Jay's a real classy guy," Elias said. "The Ivy League should be proud to have him in it."
The game-winning touchdown pass, a tightly-spiraled 38-yard toss to John Hyland '94 with 1:12 to play, was the final marvelous stroke from Fiedler in one of the most memorable games ever played at Memorial Field.
The pass to Hyland came one play after Hunter Buckner '94 pounded Princeton quarterback Joel Foote and forced him to cough up a fumble on which Taran Lent '96 quickly pounced.
The only way to describe Dartmouth's win is to say that sometime during the final four minutes the game left the snowy confines of Memorial Field and entered the Comeback Zone -- that dark abyss that has swallowed up Dartmouth's opponents and suspended the natural laws of normalcy and allowed the Big Green to shirk double-digit deficits late in the game three times this season.
The most amazing part of The Comeback, Part III, was that Princeton was thoroughly in control of the game through all but the final 10 minutes when the Tigers' lead -- and most probably their sanity -- unraveled with the speed of a Jay Fiedler bullet.
Behind the all-but unstoppable running of Elias, who finished the day with 188 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries, the Tigers built up a 22-8 lead. Princeton scored its final touchdown on an 83-yard, 15-play monster of a drive that ate nearly seven and a half minutes off the clock. The Tigers did not put the ball in the air once and ran Elias 10 times for 57 yards, including a one-yard dive for the touchdown.
Dartmouth went three-and-out on its next possession, which probably should have killed any hopes for a victory were it not for the fact that Princeton returned the favor when it was unable to move the chains, thanks largely to a key sack by Ed Coker '94 on second down.
Princeton's Ben Clark intercepted Fiedler on Dartmouth's next play from scrimmage, which should have killed any hopes for victory.
But as it has all season, Dartmouth's defense came up with a huge stop when it was needed most. With Elias's war-torn body on the bench being taped up, Princeton went three and out and, more importantly, only took a minute to do so.
Fiedler made a much better use of the eighth of his nine lives on the next drive as he quickly pushed into Princeton territory with two quick completions of seven and 16 yards to David Shearer '95 and Hyland. He then unloaded a gorgeous 41-yard pass to Shearer -- who had beaten his man by three steps -- for the Big Green's first touchdown of the quarter.
Princeton ran Elias on seven of its eight plays on its next drive, but the NCAA's all-time leader in average rushing yards-per-game was met by three blitzing Dartmouth linebackers on a crucial third-and-eight play and was driven back two yards to force Princeton to punt.
About that time, Fiedler left the world of mortal quarterbacks and took Shearer and Hyland along with him. Both Shearer and Hyland caught passes of 13 yards to start Dartmouth's next drive. After an incomplete pass -- one of the few Fiedler threw in the second half -- Shearer somehow caught an underthrown ball that Fiedler had to loft up before getting decked by an on-coming Princeton blitz.
Fiedler then hit Shearer on a 10-yard pattern to put Dartmouth on the Tigers' nine-yard line. The next play was a classic example of Fiedler doing whatever it takes to win. The senior captain dropped back to pass and eluded a sack at the 15-yard line and either bounced off, pushed away or plain bowled over three tacklers before diving into the endzone from four yards out in a play that defined the word "scramble."
As if that weren't impossible enough, Dartmouth opted for a two-point conversion that it made good on when Hyland grabbed a pass from out of nowhere after it ricocheted off a pair of defenders. That bizarre reception tied the score at 22.
Princeton fumbled two plays later as Princeton receiver Dave Scoggin lost control of the ball after a reception and practically threw it at Jamie Whitticom '96 who recovered for Dartmouth.
After two incomplete passes, Fiedler threw an eight-yard completion to Hyland, but threw another incomplete pass on fourth down to give Princeton the ball.
And, just as the game seemed destined for a tie, Princeton fumbled again to set up the game-winning heave to Hyland.
Although Penn beat Cornell 17-14 in a comeback effort of its own to secure sole possession of the Ivy League title and snap a string of three straight championships for Dartmouth, second place never felt so good.
"We've had a hell of a season," Fiedler said. "It's tough to know that you lost the Ivy Championship by four points in the first week of the season when we were not as good a team. But we're very proud of the second half of our season."
Fiedler, who finished the day with 284 yards on 16 of 32 passing with two touchdowns in the air and two on the ground, broke the Ivy League record for career total yardage.
The other record that fell on the frosty tundra of Memorial Field went to Hyland, who broke the record for receiving yards in a season with five catches for 91 yards. And although he didn't break any records, Shearer had one of the best afternoons of his career with seven clutch catches for 127 yards.
Dartmouth finished its season with six straight wins for a 7-3 overall record and 6-1 in the Ivy League.
