Brophy Field played host to its first ever Ivy League match on Saturday, as host Dartmouth men's rugby trounced Yale, 62-8.
Dartmouth (3-0, 3-0 Ivy) jumped out to an early 21-0 lead on tries by Tommy Brothers '11, Derek Fish '12 and Will Lehmann '12.
"Really, our goal from the beginning and right before we started the game was to come out fast, get our systems going," Tay Stevenson '10 said. "We wanted to get them on their back foot, play the style of rugby that we want to play."
Dartmouth added three more tries from Nick Downer '11, Paul Jarvis '12 and Lehmann before Yale (2-1, 2-1 Ivy) spoiled the shutout with a penalty kick just before halftime. The points marked the first time in almost 120 minutes of rugby that Dartmouth had allowed an opponent to score.
The Big Green shut out Columbia 80-0 in their last match.
Dartmouth used all seven of its substitutions during the second half. Coach Alex Magleby said he felt that Dartmouth's substantial lead represented an opportunity to improve the team as a whole.
"We really need to develop depth it's a long season," Magleby said. "We need to get our bench on and get those guys some opportunities."
Stevenson, the first man off the bench against Yale, stressed the importance of having 22 men capable of playing at any time.
"We work on being ready to step up when our name is called," Stevenson said.
Dartmouth graduated a number of key starters with the Class of 2009, but several returning players said that the transition has thus far been smooth.
"We are doing a good job of developing personnel, and we hope to continue doing that into the fall," Fish said in a release.
Dartmouth opened the second half with quick tries from Charlie Grant '11, Downer and Sam Edandison '10. Dartmouth's offense slowed as the half wore on, however, and Yale held the Big Green scoreless for the final 25 minutes of play.
"If we played the first 25 minutes of the game like we played the last 25 minutes, we would have been in it," Yale head coach Jan Pikul said in the release.
Magleby echoed Pikul's comments.
"It's easy, especially when you're up or down by a lot, to lose focus and to not be in that moment," he said. "We're continuing to work on it, but it doesn't come easy. It will be a big focus of ours moving forward."
Yale added a late try, the first that Dartmouth has allowed all season, to complete the scoring.
"We were able to do what we wanted to do in the first half and click offensively," Jarvis, one of the seven Dartmouth players to score a try on the day, said in the release. "This was a solid team effort."
Magleby said that he was pleased with Dartmouth's kicking game, but that there were a number of areas in which Dartmouth needs to improve as the team heads into the meat of their Ivy League season.
"Our biggest disappointment was our inability to continue the direction we were going in," Jarvis said. "Guys were in some new positions a little bit."
Magleby also said that Dartmouth needs to maintain discipline if the team wants to continue its early success.
"We're pretty physical at the contact point, but we're not as disciplined as we should be," he said, pointing to penalties and off-sides calls.
The team will play host to Harvard (3-0, 3-0 Ivy) at 11 a.m. this Saturday at home.
"The Harvard match is the highlight of our regular season," Stevenson said. "We'd love to see that support against a very tough Harvard team."
Saturday's game will be something of a grudge match, as the two schools have met in the last four Ivy championship games, with Dartmouth winning three of those competitions.
"They work hard, and it really is an unofficial Ivy championship this weekend," Magleby said. "It should be an exciting game."
