Schwieger, Schmidt Earn Ivy Weekly Football Awards

HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth junior tailback Nick Schwieger (Norton, Mass.) and junior placekicker Foley Schmidt (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) were named the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week and Special Teams Player of the Week, respectively, for their performances in the Big Green's 27-19 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon. This is the third such honor for Schwieger in his collegiate career (second this season), and the second for Schmidt.

Schwieger, a 5-10, 210-pound product of Bishop Feehan high school, handled the ball on more than half of Dartmouth's 67 offensive plays, carrying the ball a career-high 31 times for 169 yards — his third 100-yard game of the season — and a touchdown, plus catching three passes for six yards. Six of his runs went for at least 11 yards, including a 24-yarder on the Big Green's first play from scrimmage and a 25-yarder in the third quarter. His rushes were evenly distributed by the halves as well with 15 carries for 85 yards over the first 30 minutes and 16 for 84 in the second half. Schwieger leads the Ivy League and ranks third nationally with 146.3 yards per game on the ground, plus is fifth in the country in all-purpose yards with a 193.5-yard average.

Schwieger was also recognized by the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA), receiving honorable mention for the FCS Running Back Performer of the Week.

While Schwieger scored the first points for the Big Green with a four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, Schmidt provided the two winning field goals in the fourth quarter. The product of St. Thomas Academy was called upon to kick a 35-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter with Dartmouth trailing, 19-14, and two minutes later got the opportunity to kick another three-pointer, this time from 32 yards, giving the Big Green the final points they needed to pull out the victory. Schmidt also converted all three of his PATs, including the final one with 48 seconds left for the final eight-point margin.

Dartmouth also had a pair of defenders named to the Ivy League Honor Roll. Junior linebacker Tyler Melancon (Parker, Texas) made a career-high 10 tackles, one for a seven-yard loss, and recovered the fumble that set up Schmidt's winning kick. Another linebacker, freshman Bronson Green, led the Green with a season-high 11 tackles on the afternoon and broke up a pass for good measure.

After the first game of the season, Schwieger was the Co-Offensive Player of the Week for racking up 216 yards on the ground in a 43-20 win over Bucknell. His other weekly award came last year for his then-school-record 242 rushing yards against this week's opponent, Columbia. Schmidt's special teams award from the conference came last year for converting a 26-yard field goal with 2:17 to play to force overtime against Cornell and providing the winning margin with a 40-yard boot in the second overtime period.

Dartmouth travels to New York this Saturday to take on the Columbia Lions (3-2, 1-1), who will be celebrating their homecoming. The audio and video streams of the game will be available on the official Dartmouth Athletics web site, DartmouthSports.com, with kickoff slated for 1:30 p.m.

Note: The CFPA named senior Pat Scorah one of the three FCS Linebacker Performers of the Week for making eight tackles and picking off a pass, which he returned 43 yards for a touchdown with 48 seconds to play, icing the Big Green victory.

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