"It was such a disjointed feel, nothing was generated," Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. "It was just a frustrating game there were plays to be made."
The Sacred Heart offense did make plays, converting four of its five red-zone chances into points, in large part due to running back Keshaudas Spence. The 5'10", 250-lb, Spence finished the day with 138 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries.
"He's a big kid and he's hard to bring down," Sacred Heart interim coach Mark Nofri said. "He's got good feet for someone that big. He may not have breakaway speed, but his ability to cut and the feet he has is outstanding."
While the Big Green knew how the Pioneers would attack and prepared accordingly, the team's schemes were simply out of sync on Saturday, according to Teevens.
"We knew what we were getting and I thought we had a decent plan," Teevens said. "There was nothing to build on. [We would] start, and then something bad happens, either self-imposed or [Sacred Heart] makes a play."
The Big Green finished the day 0-for-3 on red-zone scoring opportunities. One of those instances occurred at the start of the fourth quarter. Down 20-10 and facing second and three at the Sacred Heart 15-yard line, quarterback Dalyn Williams '16 rolled out and found tight end Justin Foley '13 on an out pattern.
As Foley approached the goal line, Sacred Heart safety Gordon Hill stripped Foley of the ball. The ball rolled into the end zone and then out of bounds, resulting in a touchback and change of possession in the Pioneers' favor.
"There wasn't a critical play we made offensively throughout the course of the game," Teevens said.
With Pierre out, Brian Grove '16 saw the majority of the snaps at running back. But the freshman struggled against the Sacred Heart defense, amassing just 17 yards on 15 carries.
"Mike [Reilly] and Dom have done a lot, but we got to treat it as an opportunity for younger guys to step up," co-captain Pat Lahey '12 said.
Kirby Schoenthaler '15 created one of the Big Green's only bright spots for the day when he returned a first-quarter kickoff for a 79-yard touchdown, giving Dartmouth a 10-6 lead. Things began to go awry in the second quarter, when quarterback Alex Park '14 threw a red-zone interception to linebacker Niko Sierra on an attempted screen pass. Sierra returned it all the way to the Dartmouth 21-yard line and three plays later, Spence found the end zone from 10 yards out to give the Pioneers a 13-10 lead that they would not surrender.
"I think the defensive line did a great job up front," Nofri said. " When you can make a kid feel uncomfortable in the pocket, that can go a long way."
Following Sierra's interception, the Big Green did not put any more points on the board for the afternoon, as Dartmouth's two quarterbacks finished with a combined 160 passing yards. Park suffered through his worst start as a collegian, completing just seven of 18 passes for 75 yards and two interceptions.
The Pioneer offense was just as ineffective passing the ball. The Big Green's blitz packages disrupted Pioneer quarterback Tim Little's timing, and the freshman finished the day with only 71 passing yards on 9-of-21 passing.
"Collectively, they didn't have a whole lot of yardage or success throwing the football," Teevens said.
The Pioneers average starting field position was their own 44-yard line, and in the second and third quarters, Sacred Heart started four drives in Dartmouth territory, including three inside the 32-yard line.
"That hurt us today, but even on a short field, we believe we should be able to stop them," linebacker Garrett Wymore '13 said. "I don't think we had a turnover today, and that's huge. It seemed like a large field-position game, where, even as we were executing, as we were playing well, we were on a short field, not putting our offense in a good opportunity to go down and score."
Last year, Sacred Heart beat the Big Green, 24-21, as the Pioneers blocked Dartmouth's game-tying 53-yard field goal attempt as time expired. While many Big Green players were looking forward to the rematch, the result was not what the team had hoped for.
"This stings, obviously, it stings bad," Lahey said. "But we'll come back tomorrow and get after it and get ready for the next team."
The Big Green will now head to New York to play Columbia University on Saturday before returning to Memorial Field to face defending Ivy League champion Harvard University in a Homecoming weekend matchup.
