After a near upset against perennial powerhouse Pennsylvania last week, the Dartmouth football team will head to Fordham on Saturday looking to notch its first win of the season.
The Big Green have a lot riding on this weekend's game, as they look to erase last year's painful 4-6 loss and return to the dominant level of play synonymous with Big Green football in the early '90s.
Dartmouth is coming off a season in which it lost five games in the Ivy League - two more losses than the previous four years combined. Fordham, like Dartmouth, is looking to rebound from a disappointing year.
The Rams went winless in eleven games in 1994, including a 31-14 defeat at the hands of the Big Green in Hanover. Dartmouth's Ren Riley '96 completed 147 passing yards with a touchdown and added two touchdowns of his own on the ground to lead Dartmouth to last year's Ram feast.
According to Head Coach John Lyons, Dartmouth expects a tougher test this time.
"I think Fordham is definitely better than last year," Lyons said. "I'm nervous about the game because we are going down there to their place to play and they seem to play pretty hard. They have a very physical team."
Fordham, 1-2 on the season, features senior quarterback Joe Moorhead, who holds many of the Rams all time passing marks and ranks first in the ECAC this year in total offense.
"They are a team that is better than their record indicates. We are going to have to go down there and play well and execute better than last week," said Lyons.
Last week the Big Green broke out early with a 12-3 half-time lead against 1994 Ivy League champion Pennsylvania. But the Dartmouth offense vanished in the final thirty minutes, and the Big Green let their edge slip away 20-12.
The biggest question of the early season, a successful defense, seemedanswered, however, as the youthful Big Green defensive corps held Penn's formidable offense to only 2.3 yards per carry and a respectable 190 total yards in the air.
Inside linebacker Mark Abel '97 led the way on defense with 19 tackles, and right tackle Scott Hapgood '97 added two hurries and a pair of sacks to help pacify the Quakers.
On offense, the first half belonged to Dartmouth, asRileyconnected with Will Bergman '97 for the first Dartmouth touchdown of the season, and Dave Regula '98 split the uprights twice to give the Big Green a 12-3 cushion at the whistle. The second half was a different story, as the Dartmouth's offensive guns fell silent, allowing Penn to crawl back and win.
"The players have worked very hard, and I think that they have bounced back from the tough loss last week," said Lyons of the team's outlook for the upcoming contest.
"With football, each game is a big one, and our whole philosophy is it doesn't matter who we play from week to week. The important thing is we come out and play the way we are capable of playing."
Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Fordham's Jack Coffey Field.
