With four seconds left in the game, all eyes in the packed Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field trained on place kicker Owen Zalc ’27.
He had missed both of his previous field goal attempts, one from 31 and another from 56.
This attempt was from 51 yards. And it would be for the win, as a missed extra point on Yale’s previous touchdown left Yale up only two points.
With only 37 seconds to work with, quarterback Grayson Saunier ’27 and the Dartmouth offense had done well to get Zalc this close. During the timeout before the kick, the tension in the atmosphere was palpable. Zalc paced periodically on his own. Inside, he was confident.
“When they do miss, I’m like, ‘okay, great, we’re gonna win the ball game,’” Zalc said.
With that mindset, Zalc took four steps back, two to his left, and his kick passed through the uprights as time expired to win the game.
The crowd erupted as the players rushed the field to celebrate Zalc’s heroics.
“I can truly say, I didn’t realize how heavy the linemen are until they all are on top
of me,” Zalc said.
Zalc’s 51-yard kick secured Dartmouth’s miracle Homecoming win over Yale, 17-16, moving to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in conference play, with all three of Dartmouth’s wins being decided by one score or less. With 7,895 spectators, the game saw the highest attendance levels at home since Oct. 2022, according to Dartmouth Athletics.
“It means a lot,” linebacker Nico Schwikal ’26 said. “We appreciate the support from the alumni, the whole school showing out today.”
The game started off slow, with Dartmouth squandering many of their early opportunities.
Late in the first quarter, Dartmouth brought out the field goal unit for a 31-yard kick. Zalc, who was last season’s Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Year, pushed his kick a smidge right to keep the game scoreless.
Two drives later, at the end of the second quarter, Saunier nearly scrambled into the endzone but was called down at the 1-yard line to set up first-and-goal. The Big Green was unable to advance further, and on fourth-down Saunier’s rush was stopped to force a turnover on downs.
“It’s not always going to work out,” Saunier said. “We got in the red zone two, three times in the first half, and we came up with a goose egg. That’s not how we’ve drawn up. It’s really about battling through.”
Despite the missed opportunities, the Big Green defense held its own, and only a Yale field goal separated the two teams at the end of the first half.
“Our defense did a heck of a job,” head coach Sammy McCorkle said. “Every point mattered in this football game, every little point. That was a Dartmouth defense there today.”
The defense had been dominant the entire game, holding star running back Josh Pitsenberger to just 4.1 yards per carry — a half-yard lower than his season average up until the game.
“We’re just a product of our D-line up front. They’ve been taking double teams all day, opening running lanes for us” Schwikal said. “I think the defense overall today did a good job rallying to the ball whenever he was carrying it.”
Dartmouth also limited quarterback Dante Reno in the air, who could only complete 59% of his passes. With Sean Williams ’26’s interception, Dartmouth has picked off opposing quarterbacks in five of its last six games, dating back to 2024.
While Reno struggled, Saunier showed his dual-threat ability all game long. His 95 rushing yards led the way for Dartmouth, but he was not alone. Running back D.J. Crowther ’26 rushed for 67 yards while backup Desmin Jackson ’26 added an efficient 51 yards to give the Big Green over 200 rushing yards in the game.
“We knew they were going to try to establish and run. And we knew we had to establish the run,” McCorkle said. “Hats off to D.J. and Dez … It was the yards after contact that I was very impressed by.”
Dartmouth’s scramble-fueled 14-10 lead was short-lived, however, as Yale ripped off 70 yards to get into the endzone to take the lead with just 37 seconds on the clock. A missed extra point, however, gave the home-crowd Dartmouth fans hope that the Big Green could win it in regulation.
With memories of Dartmouth’s failed game-winning drive against Harvard in last year’s homecoming game, Saunier and company took the field to hopefully avoid a repeat of last year’s heartbreak. On third down, out of field goal range, wide receiver Ky’Dric Fisher ’28 came up clutch, catching a pass up the middle from Saunier for 22 yards to put the Big Green into field goal range. Fisher continues to show up in big moments — this catch and his 50-yard game-winning touchdown reception against Central Connecticut State University are two of his six receptions.
“At one point in the drive coach [McCorkle] was like, ‘Hey, we just gotta get 17 more,’” Saunier said. “Just give ourselves enough time, get on the other side of the field and try and push it as far as we can before giving Owen a shot.”
The Big Green then centered the ball, before Zalc lined up the kick and split the uprights from 51 yards out as time expired.
After a heartbreaking loss last week, the players were proud that they could bring home a win for the fans.
“We had to bounce back after the loss against Penn last week,” Schwikal said. “I think everybody was bought in this week, support staff, coaches, players. We came to work every single day, and I think we knew we were going to come out with the win today, because we were going to fight till the end.”
There is little time to celebrate, however, as the Big Green must travel to the Bronx, N.Y. next week for a game against Fordham University before resuming conference play against Columbia the following week.
