The Big Green (2-5, 2-2 Ivy) traded touchdowns and interceptions with Harvard (5-2, 4-0 Ivy) for much of the afternoon, and the game came down to a late Dartmouth scoring drive that stalled before it ever got started.
Crimson backup quarterback Collie Winters ran the ball four yards to score with 14:22 remaining in the game, giving Harvard a 28-14 lead and prompting Teevens to replace starting quarterback Alex Jenny '10.
Tom Bennewitz '08 came into the game as his replacement and led Dartmouth on a 17-play, 68-yard scoring drive that burned nine minutes off the clock and put the Big Green within one score.
The Crimson fielded the ensuing kickoff and drove the ball to their own 46-yard line but a third down stop by the Big Green defense forced a punt. With 1:44 remaining and no timeouts left, Bennewitz readied to lead Dartmouth's final charge at victory.
Harvard had other plans. On the first play of the drive, Bennewitz threw the ball away under very heavy pressure and was flagged for intentional grounding. On the next play, Doug Hewlett snagged his third interception of the day, a feat that had not occurred at Harvard in over 40 years, and slid to the ground, shoring up the Crimson win.
Jenny, trying to follow up on last week's impressive performance against Columbia, started the game but was unable to develop a consistent rhythm and was bothered by the high winds from the south. Many of his throws into the wind fell short, leading to three interceptions and many more close calls.
Teevens praised Jenny's performance and offered an explanation for his interceptions.
"I thought he made some good decisions; he made some nice passes," Teevens said. "He tried to force one early and the other one was a throwaway. He was trying to get the ball out of bounds, slipped, and came up short in the endzone. And those two were critical. The third, it was a little bit of a jump ball, and you try to force it in. It's been a very successful play for us and it came at an inopportune time."
Jenny completed eight of 19 attempts for 135 yards and two touchdowns in three quarters of work.
Chris Pizzotti took the snaps for the Crimson but was just as impressive with his running as with his passing. Pizzotti chose to take the ball into the endzone himself for Harvard's first two scores, and backup QB Collie Winters ran in the other two Crimson touchdowns.
"The looks that they were giving, we knew down at the goal line that there were some plays we could run, some quarterback-designed runs or pitching the ball to the running back, that could have some success based on their defense," Pizzotti said.
Pizzotti was 16 for 24 through the air, good for 193 yards and one interception. He credited the Harvard offensive line for his impressive performance.
Milan Williams '09 returned from his prolonged absence to lead the Big Green in rushing with 74 yards. Teevens limited Williams' workload, opting for a committee of backs to take over the rushing duty.
Rob Mitchelson '10 added 15 yards to the rushing total and Nate Servis '09 ran for eight yards. Ryan Mahoney '08 pounded the ball into the endzone in a goal line situation in the fourth quarter for Dartmouth's final touchdown.
Harvard linebacker Carl Ehrlich praised the Big Green offensive line for the role it played in the success of Dartmouth's running game.
"They blocked up well, they're a good offensive line, they just stayed with it," Erlich said. "I think a lot of teams would get disheartened early on the game, but they stayed with it, they stalled a little bit, they never lost confidence."
After the game, Teevens had very few negative things to say about the contest. He expressed his enthusiasm for the way Dartmouth played, and for the fact that they competed through 60 minutes of football, a theme the team's coach has stressed since the Big Green's week one loss to Colgate.
"This was a big one, the next one's a big one, and so on down the road," he said.
The Big Green returns to Hanover this weekend to take on Cornell at 12 p.m. on Saturday. The Big Red, 4-3 overall, is currently tied for sixth place in the Ivy League with Penn, at 1-3 in conference action.
