Dartmouth football opened its season against No. 12-ranked Colgate Saturday, suffering a bittersweet loss made only worse by the game's close score. Colgate came into the game led by Jamaal Branch, arguably the premier player in Division I-AA football, with talk of being drafted this year in the NFL. Last season, Branch ran off 2326 yards as he led Colgate to a 15-1 season with their only loss coming in the National Championship to Delaware.
Last year's Colgate-Dartmouth opener saw Branch slice through the Big Green for 211 yards and three touchdowns as Colgate coasted to an easy 31-9 victory. This year, Dartmouth proved to be a much tougher match Dartmouth captain Ryan Conger '05 told me the mentality was "don't tell them we're coming, show them we're here." Yet, an excellent defensive showing and last second heroics by Charlie Rittgers '06 could not lift Dartmouth, as the Red Raiders held on 17-15 over the Big Green.
The first half was a defensive battle with the score tied at three. Finally, with 13 minutes left in the game, Ray Rochester '07 scored on a one-yard run for the Big Green. The extra point was botched leaving the Big Green up 9-3.
With seven minutes to go, Rittgers threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown giving Colgate a 10-9 lead. Rittgers' two interceptions in the game were his first in 147 passes dating back to Nov. 1, 2003. With less than four minutes to go, Branch finally busted out for a 45-yard touchdown run.
Down 17-9 with 1:16 left, Rittgers was faced with driving the Big Green 77 yards for the potential tying drive.
Bob Murphy '05 described the final drive, "In the last drive we knew we could score if we just stayed to what we do well and make some plays. We got some good breaks on some fourth downs and took advantage of them. The final play we were just trying throw the ball in the and hopefully someone would come down with it. Charlie decided to throw it up to me and was able to come down with it."
With no time on the clock, Rittgers found Murphy in the end zone for the potential game-tying touchdown. Because Dartmouth had missed an extra point earlier in the game, Dartmouth could not just add the extra point and send the game into overtime. Dartmouth found itself forced to go for two down 17-15. The two-point conversion could not be completed and the Big Green lost the game 17-15.
Some positives can be taken out of this game. For one, the Big Green defense held Colgate to only 240 yards of total offense compared to last year where Branch alone had 211 yards. Captain free safety Clayton Smith '05 said that the keys to shutting down Branch and Colgate were "lots of practice and focus to build toughness and prepare for their simple offense. The defensive line played a really impressive game as far as stopping the run and getting pressure on the quarterback."
Secondly, after the departure of Casey Cramer '04 and Jay Barnard '04, one might have expected some difficulties in the passing game. Andrew Hall '05 and Murphy picked up the slack, catching 16 passes for 194 yards between the two.
Murphy commented, "Drew [Hall] was a major part of our offense last year along with Cramer and Barnard. Now he got the chance to make plays on every down. With his great catches and Charlie throwing the ball well, we should be able to hurt a lot of defenses."
Also, Rittgers looks to continue last season's aerial success, as he threw an eye-popping 59 passes with 26 completions for 279 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
With any loss, problems rose to the surface for the Big Green. First and foremost, Dartmouth has to make sure that extra points are made. As seen this season in college football, with Nick Serna missing the game-tying extra point for Oregon State at LSU in overtime, or Northwestern missing a staggering five field goals in one game, no team is immune from problems with special teams.
For Dartmouth, the excuse will be that the special teams were jumbled because of senior Tyler Lavin's rolled ankle the day before the game. Still, with missed extra points leading to four losses in the last four years, with or without Lavin, extra points must be a concern for Coach Lyons.
Secondly, the running game was anemic, with Chris Little '05 gaining only 10 yards on 10 carries. After posting big numbers against Holy Cross, Harvard and especially against Columbia last season, Little was expected to have a breakout senior year. While this is only one game against a tough defense, the running game definitely needs to produce more.
Lastly, Dartmouth starts the season again with a loss for the seventh straight season. Next on the horizon is No. 10-ranked University of New Hampshire, whom Dartmouth has not beaten since 1976.
Unfortunately, Dartmouth has scheduled Colgate and UNH from now until 2011 for the first two weeks of each season.
After the game, The Dartmouth asked Smith, Conger and Murphy what could be taken away from last week's loss and the outlook for next week against UNH.
Smith said, "We played a good team really tough, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we lost. There is really no moral victory so the only way to redeem ourselves will be next week against UNH."
Murphy added, "Its definitely a disappointment every time you lose. We feel like we are a better team and should have won that game. The positive thing is that we made a ton of mistakes and still had a shot to win the game at the end."
Conger looked forward, saying, "Going into UNH week, we plan to build on the things we did well against Colgate and correct the mistakes we made. UNH has had a pretty good start this season so we really have to buckle down this week to prepare for them.
Dartmouth opens at Memorial Field at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday to face UNH, who has beaten defending national champion Delaware and then absolutely stunned Rutgers 35-24. Yet, last week, UNH fell asleep and lost to William & Mary 9-7, so it will be interesting to see which UNH team shows up. Either way, this is an important game for the Big Green, who does not want to go 0-2 before traveling to Pennsylvania the following week.
