The Big Green put together a near flawless effort against Holy Cross by running a balanced offense that chewed up yards and the clock and coming up with timely turnovers to humiliate the Crusaders 35-7 at Memorial Field on Saturday, extending their unbeaten streak to 11 games. Dartmouth is 4-0 for the first time since 1977.
There is little doubt among the 6,111 people in attendance Saturday that the Big Green were playing their best football of the year. A highly efficient offense was perfect in the red zone, scoring a touchdown all five times they marched inside the Holy Cross 20. The defense stopped the run and came up with two interceptions to end Crusader drives. The kicking game was perfect on extra points and punting the ball. Dartmouth finally emerged as the powerhouse team that people envisioned them being at the beginning of the season.
"There isn't a team on our schedule that we can't beat if we play the way we are capable of playing which is how we played yesterday," Head Coach John Lyons said.
The opening drive of the game set the tone as the Big Green drove down the field using an effective mixture of rushing and passing. Running backs Greg Smith '97 and Pete Oberle '96 had success running through the large holes the offensive line opened, while quarterback Jon Aljancic '97 used precision in completing all three pass attempts on the 11-play, 67-yard drive.
Smith opened the scoring for the Big Green when he found a seam on the right side of the line and burst into the endzone from four yards out.
The rest of the half was much the same as the Dartmouth offense benefited from good field position as a result of the tenacious play of the defense and special teams.
The Big Green defense played the run-and-shoot Crusaders exactly as Lyons had desired, giving them the short passes and guarding the big play. Holy Cross helped out this defensive scheme by dropping eight passes in the first half after twice being pinned deep in their territory by excellent punts by Wayne Scholoblom '00. Cornerback Tom Reusser '98 blocked two Holy Cross punts as well.
Dartmouth went to the locker room with a commanding lead after putting together two scoring drives of 62 and 65 yards in the second quarter.
For starters, linebacker Mark Abel '97 intercepted a Brion Stapp pass at the Dartmouth 37 to kill a Crusader drive, and the offense did the job from there. Aljancic, Smith and Oberle gave the Crusader defense fits running the ball gaining 37 of their 230 yards on the day.
Aljancic capped the drive on an option keeper by following All-Ivy tackle Brian Larsen '97 around the right end to put the Big Green ahead 14-0.
"I thought our offense really played well today," Lyons said. "We had really good balance between running the ball and throwing the ball. Most importantly, we controlled the game on offense by controlling the clock by going on long drives and were able to execute inside the red zone."
Two drives later, Aljancic used his arm to torture the Crusaders defense as he found Zach Ellis '98 for an apparent 35-yard score, but Ellis was called out of bounds at the 15 yard line. Six plays later, Aljancic extended the lead to 21-0 when he dove over the line of scrimmage with 44 seconds left in the half.
"It felt really good to score when we got in close," Aljancic said. "The last few weeks we had been settling for field goals and just not getting in the zone, but we punched it in and it felt really good not to just win but to dominate the game like we did."
Holy Cross tried to get back in the game in the second half with its passing offense. Using 11 consecutive completions by Strapp and a running into the kicker penalty on Dartmouth to give them a first down, the Crusaders scored when Strapp hit wide receiver John Myers on a 19-yard post pattern for a touchdown.
But the Big Green had no intention of letting the Crusaders crawl back into the contest. On the first play after the touchdown, Smith broke free from tacklers and into the open field for a 62-yard run to the Holy Cross 18.
Three plays later Will Bergman '97 made a great catch in the right back corner of the endzone to give Aljancic his second touchdown pass of the year.
On the ensuing drive, Big Green safety Matt Danciewicz '98 intercepted Strapp in the end zone to eliminate any chance of a Crusader comeback. Aljancic's third touchdown run of the day put Dartmouth ahead by the eventual final score, 35-7.
Even though the Big Green gave up over 300 yards through the air, Lyons was happy with the play of the defense.
"They were throwing one step passes which are hard to defend, but we didn't give up the big play," Lyons said. "We were able to get pressure and force them to make some bad throws that resulted in turnovers."
Dartmouth will look to extend the unbeaten streak during Homecoming next week when Yale comes to town. Yale is 2-2 on the season but is tied with the Big Green at the top of the Ivy League standings with a 1-0 league record.