Editor's Note: Each day while Team BGA is soaking up some warm weather this site will repost game stories that appeared on the BGA Premium site last fall. Typos have been fixed and minor editing has cleaned up what was deadline writing ;-)
DURHAM, N.H. -- To pull off a serious upset you need to make big plays when there are big plays to be made, you have to commit fewer mistakes than the other guy, and when you do make mistakes they better not be serious.
DURHAM, N.H. -- To pull off a serious upset you need to make big plays when there are big plays to be made, you have to commit fewer mistakes than the other guy, and when you do make mistakes they better not be serious.
Dartmouth struggled on all three counts in a 52-19 loss Saturday night to No. 4 New Hampshire in the renwal of the Granite Bowl.
“Man, they’re good,” Big Green coach Buddy Teevens said quitely afterward. “They played well and we helped them on just about every turn. We allowed some big plays, we couldn’t get them off the field, the kicking game was a disaster, and we were inconsistent from an offensive standpoint.”
The Big Green (1-1) . . .
• gave up a touchdown on a blocked punt and
• surrendered another after an 18-yard re-kick that never should have happened and
• had still another TD set up by an interception of a ball that should not have been thrown and
• snapped a ball over the punter’s head for a safety and
• settled for a field goal after having a first down at the 1 and
• missed an extra point and
• and overthrew a receiver on an option pass that should have been an easy touchdown.
Whew.
“On and on and on,” Teevens said of the litany of miscues. “They are things we don’t do. A good football team will make you make mistakes. I give them credit. (But) we are better than we showed today. There were flashes on both sides, but certainly not enough."
UNH wasted little time demonstrating that it would still be dangerous without injured starting quarterback Sean Goldrich. On just the Wildcats’ fourth play from scrimmage QB Andy Vailas kept the ball up the middle, broke to the right and outsprinted the Dartmouth secondary for a 69-yard touchdown run.
A two-point conversion made it 8-0.
Just over two minutes later it would be 17-0.
First a snap out of the end zone on a punt gave UNH a safety. Then it was the Wildcats taking over at their own 46 following the free kick, making three first downs without facing a third down, and backup tailback Jimmy Owens bulling in from the 1.
But just when it seemed the Big Green was going get to run off the field without putting up a fight the Ivy Leaguers came alive.
Aided by a roughing-the-passer penalty that negated a UNH interception, Dartmouth marched from its own 12 to the home 5 before Dalyn Williams hit wide-open tight end Stephen Johnston for not only the freshman’s first touchdown but his first collegiate catch.
Another New Hampshire mistake enabled Dartmouth to cut further into the deficit before the first quarter was out. This time it was a Vailas fumble after a 13-yard run that Stephen Dazzo recovered at the UNH 37. Williams then hit Kyle Bramble with a 12-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-13.
“You spot them 17 points it’s tough against anybody,” said Teevens. “The nice thing is our guys rallied back. Then a mistake here, a mistake there along with a couple of big plays… .”
Dartmouth had a golden chance to take the lead after making a stop on New Hampshire’s first possession of the second quarter, but receiver Ryan McManus’ pass after catching a lateral from Williams sailed just beyond the reach of the wide-open Bo Patterson, who would have skated into the end zone with a 67-yard touchdown.
Instead of surrendering the lead it was UNH expanding it after an “illegal batting” penalty negated a 40-yard Dartmouth punt and the re-kick went out of bounds to set the Wildcats up at the Big Green 41. Vailas proceeded to hit two third-down passes before Owens powered in from the 2 to make it 24-13 with eight minutes left in the half.
New Hampshire added to the lead on its next possession as Vailas hit All-America receiver RJ Harris for a 49-yard gain to the 6 before scoring on a QB keeper from the 2 to make it 31-13 with 1:15 left in the half.
It’s hard to say there’s a turning point in a 33-point loss but what happened next was close.
Dartmouth senior Kirby Schoenthaler fielded the UNH kickoff at the 6, showed his sprinter’s speed while splitting would-be tacklers and then showed his determination by dragging a pile of them the last 15 yards or so down the right sideline before he was finally hauled down at the 2.
But after a pass interference penalty advanced the ball to the 1, Williams was wrestled down for a loss of seven, a pass fell incomplete, and the Dartmouth quarterback was stopped for a loss of one. On fourth-and-goal from 9, Alex Gakenheimer came on and booted a 26-yard field goal to make it 31-16 at the break.
“I thought a key thing was the stop at the end of the half,” said UNH coach Sean McDonnell. “I thought that was huge. It gave us a lot of momentum. It gave us a lot of confidence. We were on our heels a little bit defensively.”
New Hampshire wasted little time putting the game away in the second half.
After the Dartmouth defense forced a three-and-out to start the third quarter, disaster struck the Ivy Leaguers again. An interception of a first-down pass near midfield was followed by Vailas completions of 17 yards to Owens and 29 to Harris for a touchdown and a 38-16 lead. The 46-yard drive took just 27 seconds.
On the ensuing Big Green possession it was high snap contributing to a punt block that Horace Chalstrom carried nine yards into the end zone to make it 45-16.
Backup running backs Abrm McQuarters and Jacob Siwicki combined for 46 yards as the Big Green responded with a drive that led to Gakenheimer’s career-long 41-yard field goal, but the Wildcats recovered Dartmouth’s onside kick and proceeded to march 55 yards in six plays, the last a two-yard pass from Vailas to Harris that closed out the night’s scoring.
New Hampshire now has won 13 straight games against Dartmouth, scoring at least 42 points in the last eight of those matchups and in 10 of the last 11. Although he was disappointed with how his team played, Teevens came away feeling that the gap between the Colonial Athletic Association powerhouse and his team has shrunk.
“We are closer,” he said. “We are a better football team than when we lined up the last time we played them. The score may not indicate that, but I think we are a much more competitive team now.
“It was just a comedy of errors that contributed to the (early 17-0) stretch. That’s not taking anything away from those guys. … I take notes on the sidelines. I’ve got two pages of things. I never have that much.”
Dartmouth opens Ivy League play Saturday when it plays host to a Penn team that won’t present nearly the same kind of challenge the Big Green faced from New Hampshire.
“What we’ve got to do is regroup,” said Teevens. “We certainly have great respect for a team of that caliber. That’s where we want to be. Physically we were closer than we have ever been in recent times. We just need to go back to work.”
NOTESThis was the first time in the last 15 games that Dartmouth did not hold a lead at any time...Williams was 12-of-23 for just 108 yards with two touchdowns and an interception...Bramble led Dartmouth with 51 yards rushing on 15 carries and 39 yards on four receptions...Vailas completed 17-of-26 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns and ran eight times for 112 yards and two more...Harris has topped 100 receiving yards in every game this fall and did it again on this night with eight catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns...Owens, filling in for injured 1,000-yard rusher Nico Steriti, carried 15 times for 81 yards and two touchdowns.
With the win UNH kept alive a streak of non-conference home wins that dates back to Nov. 11, 2000 when the Wildcats lost to Gardner-Webb, 38-35. They are 27-2 in their last 29 games at a field they are now calling, “The Dungeon.”
