Despite the long journey to Pennsylvania, the Big Green teams came out aggressively. Within the first few minutes, Will Lehmann '12 set the tone of the game weaving through the Penn defensive wall and finding his way to the try zone, giving Dartmouth an early 5-0 lead.
"It was a good start and we dominated certain aspects of the game," coach Alex Magleby said. "The score indicated we had total control of the Penn game."
Adding to the score, one of the team's four captains, Chris Downer '11, ran in back-to-back tries of his own. One of the conversions by Derek Fish '12 went through the uprights, putting Dartmouth ahead by 17.
With the score at 17-0, the Big Green's pressure resulted in a long defensive stand by the Quakers. The Big Green adapted their offense well, as Lehmann and captain Tommy Brothers '11 ran in additional tries. Fish put both kicks up resulting in 29 unanswered points for the Dartmouth ruggers.
Going into the second half, the Big Green led Penn 45-7. The team used their momentum and kept the pressure on to the end. Fish ran in a try of his own and completed the conversion, putting Dartmouth up by a score of 52-7. Fish went on to put up another kick after inside center Tom Sheridan '11 ran in another try.
Despite the early lead, the team had some difficulty maintaining its focus in the second half, according to Downer.
"We came out a little nervous against Penn," Downer said. "Although we got off to a good start, we lost focus halfway through the game and Penn was able to put some pressure on us."
Finally, Lehmann carried the ball in for the final two tries of the game, bringing the final score to 78-7. Lehmann's tally for the day was an amazing six tries and 31 points.
The result of the 2nd-XV game reflected great plays on Dartmouth's behalf. The team effectively connected with their backs on the wing, who were able to score try after try, and despite the physicality of the game, the final score of the match was 38-7 in the Big Green's favor.
The team also faced a tough Princeton opponent on Sunday, trouncing the Tigers by a score of 52-3.
Magleby said the team was able to learn from Saturday's game and make changes going into Sunday's game.
"One area that we'll look to improve upon this week in training is our ability to recycle the ball quickly and go forward," Magleby said. "[That] was exposed in part against Penn, and we were able to make improvements against Princeton today."
Overall, the team was very happy with its results, according to Downer.
"We're all really excited about how we played," he said. "We understand that we have a long way to go to reach our peak, but we think we got off to a really good start. "
Downer said the team's goal is to ultimately win the Ivy League title this season.
"These big wins really helped us out in achieving our final goal," Downer said. "We want to win the Ivy League."
The games this weekend also allowed to the team to gain some valuable experience, according to Downer. The team was able to put in 15 substitutes in the second half of Princeton game, which helped with the team's development as well as its future prospects.
The Dartmouth men's rugby club will travel to Yale University to face the Bulldogs next weekend.
On the women's side, despite having lost two of its first three scrimmage matches, the team remains optimistic about the upcoming season.
"We're really excited and really optimistic about this season," co-captain Grace Dowd '11 said. "We've been working really hard and we've developed some freshmen who are going to be really exciting to watch."
The team has played Vassar College, Norwich University and a Boston club team, Beantown RFC. In spite of only posting a win against Vassar, the team is still confident as it prepares for the rest of its season.
The women came into all the scrimmages knowing where it stood and it used the games as a learning experience, according to co-captain Kristen Liu '11.
"We knew we had to view the games as opportunities to gain experience, and not get too focused on winning them," Dowd said.
Next up for the women's team is its first season game against the University of Connecticut on Saturday.
"I'm extremely excited for UConn," Liu said. "This game is probably one of our best games to start with because they are a team that we are really matched up with I think we're going to do really well."
