Neither the rain nor the 25 mph gusts of wind could stop the fate of the swamp fest Saturday at Memorial Field, as the Dartmouth football team added its own version of Big Green celebration on the centennial anniversary of Dartmouth weekend.
Dartmouth, now 4-2 on the year, attacked early and decisively against a smaller and younger Colgate team, in the midst of its worst record [0-7] in school history.
The Big Green built a 35-0 half-time lead and then coasted the rest of the way to take the Homecoming victory, and a little sweet revenge from the Red Raiders of Colgate, to the tune of a 35-14 shellacking in front of 6,021 drenched fans.
"I think for a lot of people [this game] was personal. They were talking all sorts of smack last year," Dartmouth center Kevin Mcgowan '96 said, referring to comments made during the come-from-behind 20-16 victory Colgate handed Dartmouth .
"Last year there was a lot of talk about them -- saying we didn't have heart as a team," Mcgowan continued. "I think that everybody got real offended by that making fun of our manhood."
This time around, Dartmouth made sure to silence the talk right from the start. "We always say we should come out with our hair on fire," Mcgowan said. "I'm guessing that's as close as you can come."
In the first quarter alone, Dartmouth's offense recorded four touchdowns, and its defense didn't relinquish a single first down.
Red Raider Head Coach Ed Sweeney tried to account for the traumatizing beating of his Red Raider team in the first 15 minutes. "Dartmouth didn't do anything we didn't expect," Sweeney said. "It just snowballed so quickly. We started reeling."
The snowball started on the first play of the game, in the form of speedster Zack Ellis '98. Ellis took the opening kickoff from Dartmouth's own 11 and dodged a few slipping and sliding Colgate defenders until he was finally dragged down at the Colgate 49 yard line.
Dartmouth's offense then made quick pickings out of Colgate's listless defense, with six quick plays on the ground into the Colgate end zone. Tailback Greg Smith '97 did the brunt of the damage with a mammoth 28-yard dash through a gaping hole on the left side, until a mix of Colgate defenders uprighted him at the five.
That play, followed by Smith's sweep around the left end for the score, soon proved to be only a taste of what was left to come.
Less than two minutes later, the Big Green got the ball back on a punt to their own 32 and picked right up from where they left off.
Dartmouth once again free wheeled down the gridiron, with tailbacks Smith, co-captain Pete Oberle '96 and Ambrose Garcia '97 driving left, right or over the middle o f Dartmouth's overpowering offensive line.
Twelve plays later, Smith got the call again at the Colgate one. Quarterback John Aljancic '97 handed to Smith who leapt over the front line for the touchdown.
Colgate got the ball back, and faced with a fourth and one on its own 42, decided to go for it. Dartmouth's defensive end Scott Hapgood '97 and strong safety Mark Dancewicz '97 turned back the attempt, dumping a Red Raider runner for a loss of two.
In came the Big Green offense again, and in less time than it takes to put mustard on a hot-dog, Dartmouth scored again.
On the first play, Aljancic kept around the right end, slipped a few tackles, and galloped down the sideline until pushed out of bounds at the Colgate 22. Garcia got the hand-off on the second play, cut through a crater on the right side of the line, and sprinted the rest of the way for Dartmouth's third, but not last, touchdown of the quarter.
The Big Green defense welcomed Colgate's offense back on the field with a sack-induced fumble on the Red Raider's first play, recovered by linebacker Zack Walz '98.
Walz was voted Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row for his efforts. He totaled 15 tackles, two of which were quarterback sacks, and two pass break-ups. Walz's two week total is at 20 tackles, five of which were for losses, four pass break-ups, two sacks and one fumble recovery.
With the Walz's fumble recovery, Dartmouth got to start from Colgate's 36 yard line, and this time, the inevitable took three plays rather than two. After two fruitless downs, on third and nine, Dartmouth made it 28-zip.
Aljancic, feeling heavy pressure in the pocket, dished out a screen pass to an all-alone Smith on the right side, who faked a Red Raider and then raced untouched down the sidelines for the touchdown.
Halfway into the second quarter, Dartmouth's offense, this time led by quarterback Ren Riley '96, made it 35-0 on a three yard keeper over the right side.
The Red Raiders returned in the second half with a slightly different look, one that included an offense. Not that it mattered much by then, but the Red Raiders dominated in the second half, allowing the Big Green offense only 48 total yards.
On offense the Red Raiders accumulated 141 yards on the ground in the second half alone, along with two face-saving touchdowns.
Next week, the Big Green take their three-game winning streak to Harvard [1-5], to hopefully gain their second Ivy League win of the season, and erase another upsetting memory from last year.
"They took care of us last year," defensive end Scott Hapgood '97 said about Harvard's convincing 35-12 defeat of Dartmouth in 1994. "There is never a problem getting ready for Harvard, but this is probably even a bigger game."
