Strange things always seem to happen around Halloween. For the Dartmouth football team things were no different as a hexed offense and a vanished defense cursed Memorial Field Saturday, resulting in a haunting 35-12 loss to Ivy League rival Harvard.
The loss was the second consecutive for the Big Green, dropping the team to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the league with three games left to play. Harvard boosted its record to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the league, notching its first winning record this late in the season since 1990.
After a tough loss in the waning moments of last week's game against Cornell, in which Dartmouth's nationally-ranked defense looked shaky for the first time in weeks, all signs pointed toward a defensive revival.
But the Big Green looked confused and out of synch on defense, especially after co-captain and star linebacker Hunter Buckner '94 had to leave the game in the second quarter after dislocating his right shoulder. Buckner's status is uncertain for next week's game against Columbia.
The defense allowed Harvard junior quarterback Vin Ferrara to complete 19 of 22 passes for 302 yards and surrendered 222 yards in rushing, mostly to freshman running back Eion Hu.
John Lyons, the Big Green head coach, said after the game, "I don't think we did a good job on either side of the ball."
He had a point, as the team's offense, which had been following a risky pattern of saving all of its scoring for the fourth quarter in the last two weeks, never found any sort of pattern Saturday.
The odds, though, were stacked against quarterback Jerry Singleton '96, who has been filling in for injured QB Ren Riley '96 since he suffered a broken wrist four weeks ago against Lafayette.
Not being able to rely on a steady ground attack without injured running back Pete Oberle '96, who is out for the year, Singleton was forced to pass too often into an anticipating Harvard defense.
Even with its less than stellar performance, the Big Green went into the intermission down by only one touchdown, scored by the Crimson in the second quarter. Dartmouth managed to knock on the door twice in Crimson territory, only to be turned away empty-handed.
The second half was another story. Harvard took control with four touchdowns in its first four possessions behind Hu's 96 rushing yards and Ferraro's accurate passing that slowly picked apart the Big Green's usually air-tight defensive secondary.
After the Crimson capped a 73-yard, nine-play drive with a touchdown that put them ahead 14-0 early in the half, an eerie turn of events in a one-minute span irreversibly turned the tide in the Crimson's favor.
On the ensuing kickoff, Brian White '95 received the ball on the 2 yard line, passed through a wall of Crimson defenders and sailed untouched down the left side of the field to the endzone.
The 98-yard return tied a Dartmouth record for the longest kickoff return in school history. It was also the Big Green's first kickoff return for a touchdown since 1980.
Dartmouth then failed to convert the extra point attempt, leaving the team trailing 14-6, but nevertheless vaulting it back within striking distance.
Thirty seconds later, White again was in the spotlight when he made a diving attempt to intercept a deflected Crimson pass.
When White had nearly cradled the ball, it unexpectedly popped off his shoulder pads and landed in the arms of a passing Crimson tight end, who then sprinted 40 yards for a touchdown.
That play proved to be the game-breaker. After the game, Lyons confessed that the interception-turned-completion was the "play [that] turned the game around ... We lost a lot of momentum there."
Co-captain Josh Bloom '95 was stunned. "It was weird. One minute we're in the game and the next minute we're not."
Things only got uglier from that point on. On its next possession, Harvard used its strong running game to tally another score, putting the finishing touches on Dartmouth with an insurmountable 35-6 lead.
Dartmouth's offense, behind the fancy footwork of second-string quarterback John Aljancic '97, did manage to get the ball into the endzone on a 27-yard pass to David Shearer '95 early in the fourth quarter.
But by then it was only a matter of preserving pride, and an excruciating wait for the final ticks on the game clock to pass.
In analyzing his team's plans for the future, Lyons said, "We just have to regroup, and take a close evaluation of how we are doing and who we are doing it with."
Dartmouth will be put to the test against Columbia Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the team's final home game of the season. Columbia comes into the contest at 2-2 in the league and 4-2-1 overall after a win over Princeton Saturday.
With two away games to be played after the Columbia match, Bloom said, "These last three games are as important as ever for us. It's been a frustrating year up to this point, but we are just going to have to come out next week and work hard and not give up."
White echoed his captain's sentiments. "We are ready to do everything in our power to insure a winning season," he said.
