The Dartmouth Big Green (1-5, 1-2 Ivy League) footballers held up five fingers as they charged off the field Saturday afternoon. The opened palm stood for the hope that the men in green will finish the season on a 5-0 tear and win a share of the Ivy League championship following their first victory today, a 20-7 shellacking of the Columbia University Lions (3-3, 0-3 Ivy League). While the sentiment is genuine, the road to that title is paved with difficulties.
Nonetheless, as former Big Green standout and co-captain Anthony Garguilo '06said at halftime of Saturday's contest, "Our record so far does not reflect the way the team has played so far this season."
True, Dartmouth has been in every game except for the beating the Big Green took at the hands of David Ball's University of New Hampshire Wildcats. And Dartmouth hopes that Saturday's win will be the first step in turning around the season.
The game began with the winds coming off the Hudson River in New York City swirling around the stadium, and the giant blue "C" painted on a rocky cliff just beyond the confines of Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Field looming over the proceedings-at-hand.
Columbia received the opening kickoff, but the Lions did not have the ball for very long. Dan Cook '07 recovered a fumble deep in Columbia territory on the first play from scrimmage. Four plays later, Dartmouth was in the end zone on a one-yard run by Hudson Smythe '09.
The Big Green defense held strong on Columbia's next offensive possession, and forced a punt. The Big Green then drove downfield to set up a 31-yard field goal. Andrew Kempler '08 lined up to kick and slowly raised his head and then lowered it to focus on the ball. Kempler was coming off a turbulent game against Holy Cross in which he missed a pair of field goals, including a potential game winner with two seconds left in regulation. This time, with a strong wind behind him, Kempler's kick was true, and the Big Green went up 10-0 over the Lions.
Dartmouth held Columbia at bay for the remainder of the first half and put together an impressive 15-play, 80-yard drive at the midway point of the second quarter. Smythe once again blasted his way into the end zone, this time from four yards out. However, the big play on the drive was a fake field goal on a fourth-down play which enabled the Big Green to convert for the first down and move the ball down to the Lions three yard-line.
Mike Fritz '07 looked impressive once again, rushing all over the field and the Columbia defense. Fritz finished the game with 120 yards rushing on fourteen carries. He continues to be the Big Green's leading rusher on the season with 316 yards this year.
The biggest moment of the game was yet to come at the end of the first half. Columbia regained possession of the ball following the fake field goal drive and moved steadily down the field. The Lions reached the Dartmouth goal line, but two huge plays by defensive back Ian Wilson '08 prevented Columbia from scoring. Wilson broke up a pass and then crushed a Lions wide receiver at the entrance of the end zone as the time ticked off of the game-clock and the first half of play finished with the Big Green in front 17-0.
"It was a big possession for us, and they drove down all the way on us," said Wilson. "We knew we had to get it done, and the coaches looked to me to make a big play and I came through."
After having tamed the Lions in the first half, the Big Green glided onto the field to begin the second half. The green guns fell silent quickly though, as the third quarter passed without any scoring.
Columbia head coach Norries Wilson then replaced starting quarterback Craig Hormann with freshman M.A. Olawale. Olawale seemed to spark the team coming off the bench, and he would soon have an easy opportunity to put Columbia on the board.
The Big Green had the ball with less than half of the fourth quarter left, and a 17-0 lead. Typically, a team in Dartmouth's situation would have called a lot of run plays and attempted to drain the remaining time on the clock. Head coach Buddy Teevens '79 decided to gamble with a pass play, and Wilson called his bluff, spreading out his defensive backs and placing freshman standout Andy Shalbrack in the right area to intercept Fritz' throw.
The Lions crossed the goal-line three plays later, when Olawale pushed his way through a huge pile on a great second effort to make the score 17-7 with 5:56 left to play in the game.
Dartmouth responded thanks to some great plays from Fritz and mammoth movement from the underrated Big Green offensive line. Kempler came through again with a 27-yard field goal with 2:15 left on the clock to seal the Dartmouth victory.
"We knew it would be a tough, physical game all day long," Teevens said. "I thought we executed well defensively. We had a little stutter at the end of the first half, but our guys rallied and finished it off. Our special teams created some field position for us. Offensively, we moved the ball on the ground."
He added that, "The result was a collective team effort and a nice win for us."
Dartmouth will take on the Harvard University Crimson (5-1, 2-1 Ivy League) next Saturday at Memorial Field.
