Football drops a heartbreaker to undefeated Harvard in pivotal Ivy League battle
It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
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It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
In the purest form of a heartbreaker if there ever could be, the No.22 Dartmouth football team lost 14-13 to No.15 Harvard University on Friday night after holding a lead for the first 59:22 of the game.
Three hundred and sixty three days ago, Dartmouth was in a situation very similar to the one it faces today. Playing against another in-conference undefeated team and its biggest rival, the Big Green faltered, however, and lost its grip on a potential Ivy League crown. One year later, the annual clash against Harvard University has arrived once again, though the stakes are even higher. In the most anticipated matchup of the conference season, the No. 22 Big Green (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) will seek to accomplish what it’s done only once in the last 18 years: defeat Harvard (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) — currently ranked 15th — and take the most pivotal step toward claiming its first Ivy title since 1996.
In what can only be described as an unforeseen rarity in the context of a dominant 2015 season, the football team — which had previously been blowing out opponents by an average of almost 25 points — experienced its first close call of the season on Saturday against Columbia University.
In each and every week of the 2015 season, the football team has clung to the mentality of treating each game equally and applying its focus only to the game ahead. No juncture in the team’s schedule will challenge that mindset more than the current one. With the game of the 2015 Ivy League season against Harvard University looming on the horizon, the Big Green (5-0, 2-0 Ivy) must first take care of visiting Columbia University (1-4, 0-2 Ivy) as it permanently returns to conference play this Saturday.
Playing in its final out-of-conference game, the football team extended its undefeated streak to five and achieved its strongest start to a season since 1997 at Central Connecticut State University on Saturday. While not playing to its greatest capacity, the Big Green (5-0, 2-0 Ivy) built a lead early and pulled away late en route to a 34-7 victory over the Blue Devils (2-5), marking only the fourth time since adopting a 10-game schedule in 1980 that Dartmouth swept through its non-conference slate in a season.
“If we don’t change the way we teach the game, we won’t have a game to teach.”
It was the Homecoming game, Dartmouth’s Ivy League home opener and one of the most important matchups of the season that will go toward determining the Ivy League champion. With all of these circumstances in play, the football team turned Saturday afternoon’s contest against Yale University into a blowout by halftime. On the back of three different personal and school records broken by quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16, the Big Green (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) thrashed the Bulldogs (3-1, 1-1 Ivy) 35-3.
With three decisive blowout victories under its belt, the football team will soon encounter its toughest challenge to date this season. In the conference home opener and annual Homecoming game this Saturday, the Big Green (3-0, 1-0 Ivy) now seeks to extend its strong start against the similarly formidable Yale University (3-0, 1-0 Ivy), who represents one of the larger obstacles to the Ivy League crown.
Following two impressive blowouts in non-conference play to begin the season, the football team hardly missed a beat upon starting Ivy League play last Saturday. Crossing the end zone on each of its first three offensive drives and accumulating a three-touchdown lead by halftime, the Big Green (3-0, 1-0 Ivy) easily trampled over the University of Pennsylvania (1-2, 0-1 Ivy) 41-20 with another superb performance from quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 leading the way. On top of commencing Ivy play in assertive fashion, the win was Dartmouth’s first playing at Penn since 1997.
For a team with Ivy League title aspirations this season, the football team now lies a day removed from its time of reckoning. Out-scoring opponents 80-17 through two games, the Big Green have pummeled their way through a soft early out-of-conference schedule. Another non-conference foe awaits in two weeks, but before then, Dartmouth (2-0) will commence its Ivy League slate, opening at University of Pennsylvania (1-1) this Saturday.
Both the Dartmouth and Sacred Heart football teams suffered from sloppy early play last Saturday night, as the two teams involved combined for three fumbles within the first four minutes. Yet it was the Big Green that unquestionably emerged as the beneficiary of the turbulent start.
Off the back of a comfortable 31-10 defeat of Georgetown University (1-2) in its season opener, the football team will undertake one of its more onerous challenges this season on Saturday night. In a home opener clash on the newly renovated Memorial Field, the Big Green (1-0) will face two-time defending Northeast Conference champions in Sacred Heart University (2-1).
Crucial plays from the Big Green defensive and special teams units paved the way for an 11-point halftime lead, topped off by a second-half offensive improvement, as the Big Green (1-0) convincingly defeated Georgetown University (1-2) 31-10. It wasn’t quite the dynamic offensive performance one might have expected from the football team, but that didn’t matter much in the team’s season opener against the Hoyas on Saturday.
Long removed from its heights of Ivy League dominance in the 1990s, the football program has endured a lengthy revival period. After a 13-year drought between winning seasons that was snapped in 2010, the Big Green have steadily improved in nearly each subsequent season, only dipping down as far as a .500 winning percentage in 2011. With expectations higher than ever, that development could reach its zenith in 2015 with the potential for Dartmouth’s first Ivy League championship in 18 seasons.
After securing the Big Green its first Ivy League championship in three years this past fall, it was fitting for the 2014 men’s soccer team to produce one of the highest numbers of athletes to sign professional contracts in recent program history.
Last Saturday morning marked the culmination of a month of spring practices, as the football team played its annual spring game in front of a strong turnout in Memorial Field, which is still in the process of being renovated. Having experienced a game-like situation — though with non-contact rules — for the first time in over five months, the Big Green will now prepare for a fall season in which they’ll be one of the favorites to win their first Ivy League championship since 1996.
For the first time since 1993, the No. 46 men’s tennis team (14-10, 5-2) defeated its rival, No. 34 Harvard University Crimson (19-7, 5-2), ending with a score of 4-3 in both schools’ regular season finales on Saturday afternoon and extending the Big Green’s win streak to five. After finishing the season tied with Harvard for second in the Ivy League behind Columbia University, the Big Green finds itself in position to reach another milestone — an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in more than 20 years when the field is announced this Tuesday.
On the heels of two consecutive conference victories last weekend, the 47th-ranked men’s tennis team was looking to extend its win streak this past weekend as the Ivy League season winds down. After victories against unranked Brown University (15-7, 1-5 Ivy) by a score of 4-3 and against Yale University (11-11, 1-5 Ivy) at 5-2, the Big Green (13-10, 4-2) now enters its final home match on a four-win surge and a chance to end the season in second place in the Ivy League.
In less than a month after leading the men’s basketball team to its highest win total since 1999, Alex Mitola ’16 has chosen to transfer out of the program and graduate early at the end of this spring term. The reigning two-time team most valuable player and second-team All-Ivy League member had asserted himself as one of the top players in the Ivy League, but now is in the midst of deciding between several potential programs to both further his collegiate basketball career in his final year of eligibility and pursue graduate school work.