It was no secret that for the Dartmouth football team to win early in the season, the defense and special teams would have to make plays to help the young and inexperienced offense put points on the scoreboard.
If that was the game plan in the season opener Saturday afternoon at Pennsylvania, the Big Green ran it to perfection on their way to a 23-15 victory over the Quakers, the Ivy League preseason favorites. The victory extended the Big Green's unbeaten streak to 18 games, the longest such streak in college football.
Dartmouth combined solid defense and both aspects of the kicking game to give themselves every advantage possible in the contest. After trading punts during the first quarter, Penn fumbled Wayne Schlobohm's '00 punt at their own 13 yard line to set up the Big Green's first touchdown late in the opening period. First-time starting quarterback Pete Sellers '98 found all-Ivy wideout Zach Ellis in the end-zone to put Dartmouth ahead 7-0.
Penn's turnover problems continued in the second quarter when a fumble in their own territory set up kicker Dave Regula's '98 23-yard field goal. On the ensuing kickoff, Dan Liebsch '98 stripped the ball away from the Quaker returner. The ball took a Dartmouth bounce into the waiting arms of Regula, who scooped the ball up at the 32-yard line and sprinted into the endzone to give the Big Green their second touchdown of the game.
"Dan [Liebsch] made an incredible play to strip the ball and I was trailing the play and the ball came towards me," Regula said. "I just picked it up and took off for the endzone. It was a shock."
The Big Green tacked on another three points before the end of the first half as the defense preyed upon Penn's inability to hold onto the football. Cornerback Brad Jefferson '98 stepped in front of Quaker quarterback Matt Rader's throw and returned it 67 yards for one of his two interceptions on the afternoon. Regula turned the excellent field position into more points when he nailed a 33 yard-field goal, giving Dartmouth a 20-0 halftime lead.
The punting and kicking games were not the only areas in which the special teams succeeded. Tom Reusser '00 set up the Regula's third and final field goal by returning a Penn punt 42 yards into Quaker territory. Penn stayed in the game with two second-half touchdowns and a two-point conversion, bringing the Quakers within a touchdown and another two-point conversion. Dartmouth would not give away this game though as the Big Green defense held its ground in the fourth quarter and preserved the victory, Dartmouth's first in Philadelphia since 1991 and its second straight opening day win over the Quakers..
"Even though we have a lot of improving to do, I think we played well enough on defense and special teams to beat what will be a pretty good football team by the end of the year," Head Coach John Lyons said.
While the special teams excelled on the afternoon by providing 17 points, the defense was the other key in the victory as they stopped Rader, a highly-touted transfer from Duke. Rader was intercepted twice and only passed for 206 yards on 39 attempts. Lloyd Lee '98 keyed the Big Green on the defensive side of the ball as he was responsible for a game-high 11 tackles, four tackles for losses, a forced fumble and one sack.
Although the team came up with the victory, it will need to use the next two games, non-league contests against Lehigh and Holy Cross, to work out the kinks in the offense. Sellers did not perform poorly, completing 18 of 30 passes for 149 yards. However, the running game managed only 26 yards on 29 carries and the Big Green's longest drive on the afternoon was 30 yards. Furthermore, the offense committed eight penalites which helped to stall their drives.
"We just kept making mistakes on offense and could never get into any kind of offensive rhythm," Lyons said. "I thought Pete did a good job for us but I was really concerned about our inability to run the football. I've never coached a game where a team won with only five first downs."
"In our spring practice meeting, Coach Lyons told us that for the first few weeks the defense and special teams would need to step it up while the offense came together, and that is what we tried to do," Regula said. "It is nice to know that we can come away with a key victory on the road when we didn't really move the ball or play as well on offense as we are capable of."
Having conquered its toughest Ivy League road contest of the year, the team feels that it are out to prove that it won't live in the shadow of last year's perfect squad.
"We needed this win to form our own identity and move out of the shadow of last year's team," Regula said. "They were a great team, but this is a new team and we want to prove that we can hold our own."
While happy to get the victory, Lyons knows a lot of work needs to be done.
"We've improved a lot over the past few weeks and hopefully we will come out next week and play a better football game with less mistakes," he said.
The Big Green go on the road next week to face Patriot League foe Lehigh.
