The Crusaders (4-2, 1-0 Patriot) were nearly unstoppable on offense, led by junior quarterback Dominic Randolph. Dartmouth (1-4, 1-1 Ivy) was only able to force one punt, and Holy Cross failed to score on just two drives, missing a field goal wide right on the opening possession.
Randolph completed 24 passes in 35 attempts, throwing for 298 yards and two touchdowns. His longest pass was for just 23 yards, and the Crusaders moved down the field with mostly short passes over the middle.
"They have a really effective offense," running back Milan Williams '09 said. "They pretty much took whatever we gave them and kept taking it."
Tom Bennewitz '08 was 12-22 for 134 yards. He did not throw for any scores, but ran one in himself in the first quarter.
Dartmouth was hurt by an uncharacteristic 111 penalty yards. Coach Buddy Teevens said he was especially frustrated by procedural penalties.
"The ones that are problematic for me are the procedurals when those things just don't have to happen," the coach said.
Williams was confident that the penalties had nothing to do with last year's homecoming melee at midfield against the Crusaders.
"We were just making stupid mistakes," he said. "We looked like we weren't ready to play Saturday -- it had nothing to do with last year's game."
Holy Cross opened the scoring on its second possession of the first quarter, driving 79 yards on 11 plays. Randolph hooked up with senior wide-out Ryan Maher for a 14-yard touchdown.
Dartmouth responded on its next possession to tie the score at seven. Williams broke away for his longest run of the day on the first play of the second quarter. His 21-yard rush brought the Big Green into the red zone and set up Bennewitz's 10-yard touchdown run four plays later.
Williams has been looking to have another breakout performance since the season opener against Colgate when he rushed for 179 yards in the overtime loss. He managed 56 yards on 17 carries.
However, the Crusaders were largely unstoppable for the rest of the game. Holy Cross tacked on two more touchdowns in the second quarter and only increased its momentum going into the locker room with a 49-yard field goal by Matt Partain as the half expired.
"They were very productive offensively," Head Coach Buddy Teevens said. "We had trouble getting their QB off the field and they mixed it up well with the run and the pass. We had difficulty stopping it, and as a result it was a long afternoon."
The Crusaders continued to score at will in the third quarter, as the Big Green offense was sustaining drives but couldn't find the goal line.
"They didn't finish," Teevens said. "That was the thing, you look at the drive charts ... we just didn't put the ball in the endzone, and that's a problem. If you get an opportunity to score you have to score."
Dartmouth drove the ball to the Holy Cross six-yard line on its second possession of the third quarter before turning the ball over on downs.
After that possession, Teevens pulled Bennewitz from the game and gave Alex Jenny '10 an opportunity to take the snaps. Jenny led an eight-play, 73-yard drive for Dartmouth's first touchdown since the first quarter.
Things began to turn around for Dartmouth late in the contest. After the score, the defense forced the first Holy Cross punt of the game. But after a three and out Holy Cross scored again, this time just a field goal.
Williams pointed to the lingering effects of last weekend's 50-10 loss at Yale as a possible explanation for the Big Green's poor performance Saturday.
"Basically we need to get back to what we were doing in the beginning of the season," he said. "We had a lot of confidence then. Yale's game kind of got to us a little bit yesterday after a couple of bad drives. It's not like we're not producing -- we just can't finish drives. We're still moving the ball, we're just not putting it in the endzone like we were doing the first couple of games."
Dartmouth will try to bounce back against Columbia next weekend as the team returns home to Hanover for Homecoming weekend, entering into the heart of their Ivy League schedule. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m.
