While it may not have been the efficient dismantling of a Patriot League opponent, all that mattered when Dartmouth boarded the bus home on Saturday was that the Big Green had earned a 21-14 victory over the Lehigh Engineers to improve their record to 2-0 overall.
It was a vision of last year's victories, trying to run the ball at every opportunity on offense while the defense was stingy giving up yards and in taking away the ball, with the offense converting turnovers into touchdowns. Dartmouth's unbeaten streak is now at nine games, the longest streak since the 1970-71 season.
Lloyd Lee's '97 second interception of the day with just under two minutes left in the game ended Lehigh's hopes of a last-minute drive to get into the end zone to either tie or potentially win the game with a two-point conversion. Lee made a diving play on an underthrown Adam Brown pass that was intended for wide receiver Matt Fazone.
"On that last drive we knew that we had to stop them somehow because we were only up by a touchdown and they just scored a series before that with relative ease," safety Lee said. "I was just lucky enough to be there. We were in man coverage and the Lehigh quarterback just made a bad throw."
Dartmouth had left the door open for an Engineer comeback by failing to score on its previous drive. Although dormant for most of the afternoon, the Big Green offense, given great field position after a Dylan Karzceweski '99 kickoff return, marched down the field before stalling at the Engineer 16.
Head Coach John Lyons, who had been gambling on fourth down all day, sent out placekicker Dave Regala '98 to attempt a 31-yard field goal to put Dartmouth up by 10 points with 2:43 remaining, effectively to secure the victory. But Regala's kick sailed wide of the right upright, giving Lehigh the ball back before Lee got it back with the interception.
"We had some opportunities to put them away late on offense and we just didn't convert," quarterback Jon Aljancic '97 said.
Lehigh's offense awakened in the fourth quarter to enable them to get back into the game. The Engineers were finally able to move the ball on offense, using quarterback Andy Brown's 36-yard completion to the fullback to penetrate deep into Big Green territory.
Brown eventually found wide receiver Mike Braswell on a deep post route for a 25-yard touchdown, which combined with a successful two point conversion cut the Dartmouth lead to seven, 21-14.
All of the Big Green's 21 points came off of turnovers, with most of them coming inside Lehigh's 20 yard line to set up short touchdown drives.
Dartmouth's first scoring drive resulted from a botched punt by Lehigh giving the Big Green the ball at the Lehigh eight yard line. A few plays later, tailback Greg Smith '97, who rushed for 127 yards on 32 carries, burst into the end zone from three yards out, putting the Big Green ahead 6-0. On the extra point, a high snap sailed over holder Aljancic's head as Dartmouth missed their fifth consecutive point after attempt in two games.
Dartmouth's second touchdown came on its only sustained drive of the game. The offense went 67 yards on 14 plays, capped when quarterback Aljancic called his own number from the one yard line, his third one-yard touchdown run of the year. The special teams unit finally converted an extra point, as Aljancic gave Regala an option pitch for a two point conversion and a 14-0 lead.
The newly achieved balance on offense from last week faded into memories past as the offense posted 69 carries on the afternoon, as opposed to throwing the ball only 17 times, with Aljancic completing five of those passes for 54 yards.
"They threw defensive formations like stunts and blitzes that we hadn't seen and weren't prepared for," Aljancic said. "Aside from that, we had some holding calls and other penalties and along with the weather, we just never found a rhythm."
Lehigh's only score of the first half came in the last minute when Brown hooked up with Fazone on a five-yard touchdown pass, narrowing the Big Green's halftime lead to 14-6.
"I think that the defense played similar to how we played in the first game against Penn," Lee said. "We had a lot of very good series but then we let down on one or two and let them back in the ballgame. But the defense came up big and we were happy to keep their potent offense to only 14 points."
Even with the victory, the team was pondering how they managed to pull out the victory.
"Well the team I guess has some mixed feelings," Lee said. "It a sign of a good team when we can struggle throughout a game and still pull out a win against good teams, but on the other hand we can't expect to keep pulling it out at the end the whole season. One team can't be that lucky. So we're definitely going to have to learn how to put people away when we get up at halftime in order to keep winning."
The Big Green will look for their 10th straight game without a loss next weekend when the host the Rams of Fordham at Memorial Field on Saturday. Fordham lost to Lehigh 20-14 two weeks ago.
