The Dartmouth Big Green used some bold moves to make a stunning comeback at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y. Unfortunately the team fell just short of an upset victory over Cornell, losing 28-25 to the Big Red.
The Big Green (1-7, 1-4 Ivy League) scored two fourth quarter touchdowns and converted a two-point conversion to bring the game to within three with 4:46 left to play. Dartmouth then lined up for the most erratic and tense of all football plays: the onside kick. As the ball bounced off of the artificial grass, the Big Red pounced on the football, effectively ending the Big Green's comeback chances and helping Cornell (4-4, 2-3 Ivy League) improve to 4-1 at home this season.
The Big Green fell in a huge hole going into the half, going down 14-0 with less than five minutes to go in the opening stanza of play, before Andrew Kempler '08 drove one through the uprights from 39 yards out to make the score 14-3.
The Big Red barreled back at the start of the second quarter as one half of Cornell's quarterback tandem, Stephen Liuzza, barged through the middle for 81 yards and a score. Dartmouth was quick to respond, driving the ball 67 yards on 10 plays and scoring on a 10-yard run by tailback Milan Williams '09.
After taking a 21-10 lead into the half, the Big Red managed just one more score in the third and fourth quarters. The other half of the quarterback tandem, Nathan Ford, picked up his second strike of the game with 14:25 to go in the final quarter of play. The Big Green then brought the score to 21-17 when quarterback Mike Fritz '07 hit tight end Brett Lowe '08 with an 11-yard scoring pass.
After Cornell stalled and was forced to punt the ball back to the Big Green, Fritz and Williams engineered an impressive six-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a one-yard score by the emerging sophomore running back. Dartmouth then converted the two-point conversion as Fritz hit All-Ivy wide receiver candidate Ryan Fuselier '06.
After recovering the Big Green's onside kick, Cornell was able to put the nail in the coffin when Ford ran for four yards on a fourth-and-one play midway through the series. Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens recognized that the Big Red was able to feast on poor tackling by the Big Green in the first half.
"We didn't open up and play well in the first half," said Teevens. "We did not tackle well defensively and we were three-and-out too often offensively. The guys gathered themselves at the half and competed. We didn't play an entire game, but we played the last 30 minutes."
Dartmouth was led on the ground by Williams, who is trying to establish himself as the number-one running back, a position he held at the beginning of the season before sharing time with Hudson Smythe '09. Williams ran for 55 yards on 11 carries for a 5.0 yard-per-carry average.
Fritz also had an impressive day, completing 21-of-35 attempts for 298 yards and one touchdown along with the two-point conversion. He was sacked six times by the Big Red defense.
The Dartmouth defense was led by John Pircon '08, who had 11 tackles, including seven solo stops. The Big Green defense came alive in the second half, but it was too little, too late, as Teevens pointed out after the game.
"Cornell's a good football team," he said. "We knew we were going to have to play four quarters. We played a half. And unfortunately that's the difference in the ball game. We spotted a good team 21 points and that's tough to make up."
