Football Holds on to Defeat Holy Cross on Homecoming, 24-21

Saturday, October 18

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

4-1

Holy Cross

2-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Holy Cross

Dartmouth

Football Holds on to Defeat Holy Cross on Homecoming, 24-21

10/19/2014 9:30:00 PM | Football

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Kyle Bramble ran for a career-high 113 yards and scored a touchdown on a seven-yard reception to help Dartmouth send the homecoming crowd home happy with a 24-21 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field. The Big Green won their third straight game and improved to 4-1 on the season, while the Crusaders suffered their fourth-straight defeat — and third in a row by three points — to drop to 2-6.

Dartmouth built up a 24-6 lead through three quarters, allowing the visiting Crusaders only a pair of field goals. But Holy Cross was determined to make things interesting by scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and cashing in on a two-point conversion to close the gap to three with just 2:15 to play.

An onside kick landed directly in the hands of Dartmouth junior Dan Gorman, but still the Crusaders would not give up. Holding the Big Green without a first down while using its remaining two timeouts, Holy Cross was able to get the ball back one last time to at the very least get into field-goal range. Yet sophomore Ben Kepley punted the ball inside the 10-yard line with a mere 1:25 on the clock. After a sack by junior defensive end Cody Fulleton on first down, Peter Pujals threw three consecutive incompletions. Two kneeldowns later and Dartmouth had avenged last year's three-point defeat against the Crusaders.

Dartmouth 24, Holy Cross 21
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014
Memorial Field • Hanover, N.H.
Attendance: 7,335 • Weather: 62, rain early, overcast

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Holy Cross	0	6	0	15	21
Dartmouth	3	7	14	0	24

Scoring Summary
1st/4:22	D	Gakenheimer 27 FG	3-0
2nd/14:10	H	Fitzgerald 26 FG	3-3
2nd/1:11	D	R. McManus 8 pass from D. Williams (Gakenheimer kick)	10-3
2nd/0:00	H	Fitzgerald 39 FG	10-6
3rd/6:49	D	Bramble 7 pass from D. Williams (Gakenheimer kick)	17-6
3rd/0:26	D	Grove 6 run (Gakenheimer kick)	24-6
4th/8:30	H	Taylor 4 run (Fitzgerald kick)	24-13
4th/2:15	H	Flaherty 7 pass from Pujals (Flaherty run)	24-21

PASSING		C/A/I	Yards	TD
D	D. Williams	15-23-0	156	2
H	Pujals	24-38-2	208	1
LEADING RUSHERS		#/Yds	Avg	TD
D	Bramble	23-113	4.9	0
D	D. Williams	14-64	4.6	0
H	Pujals	19-82	4.3	0
H	Guild	14-74	5.3	0
LEADING RECEIVERS		#-Yds	Avg	TD
D	R. McManus	8-89	11.1	1
D	V. Williams	2-24	12.0	0
H	Artim	8-88	11.0	0
H	Walker	3-23	7.7	0

Statistical Comparison	P	D
1st Downs	25	21
Rushing Yards (Net)	188	196
Passing Yards (Net)	208	156
Total Offense	396	352
Penalties/Yards	8-79	3-20
Turnovers	2	1
3rd Down Conversion	10/18	7/13
Time of Possession	31:47	28:13

The Big Green lead was just 10-6 at the half as the two teams traded field goals in the first 16 minutes. Sophomore Alex Gakenheimer put Dartmouth on top with a 27-yarder with 4:22 left in the first quarter, and Connor Fitzgerald countered with one from 26 yards three plays into the second quarter.

The lone touchdown of the first half came courtesy of Big Green junior quarterback Dalyn Williams who connected with senior Ryan McManus on an eight-yard fade route to the right corner of the end zone with barely a minute before intermission.

Holy Cross put its two-minute offense on display by marching 51 yards to the Big Green 22 before settling for a 39-yard Fitzgerald field goal as time expired.

The third quarter belonged to Dartmouth, beginning with an interception at the Big Green 19 by senior strong safety Troy Donahue, his third of the season. After picking up nearly two-third of its yards through the air in the first half, Dartmouth hit the ground running. Bramble ripped off runs of 11 and 13 yards to start the drive, and the next 50 yards were marched off on six more handoffs. The lone completion of the possession ended it as Williams dumped a pass off to Bramble who sprinted into the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown and a 17-6 lead.

The Big Green took advantage of excellent field position when McManus returned a punt 10 yards to the Crusader 48 with just under three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Six plays later, junior Brian Grove took the handoff, bounced to the outside and waltzed in for a six-yard score. Gakenheimer's point after gave the Green what looked to be a safe 18-point advantage at 24-6.

But a 17-play, 93-yard drive that took nearly seven minutes gave Holy Cross life. Shane Taylor ran the ball in from four yards out to bring the Crusaders within 11.

Dartmouth tried to put the game away by running the clock and nearly succeeded. Facing fourth down and a short three yards to go with less than four minutes to play, Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens put the ball in Williams' hands. The junior picked up the final two yards of his 64 on the afternoon, but he came up a yard shy of the marker, allowing Holy Cross to take over on downs. And when an unsportsmanlike penalty was dealt to the Big Green, the Crusaders had the ball at the Dartmouth 45.

Pujals made quick work of the short field, capping the six-play drive with a seven-yard scoring strike to Brendan Flaherty with 2:15 still to play. Flaherty then took a handoff on the two-point conversion attempt and appeared to be trapped by the sideline well short of the goal line. But he kept churning and found enough daylight to sneak into the end zone to close the gap to three at 24-21. But that would be as close as it got as Gorman covered up the onside kick.

One week after exploding for a career-high 388 passing yards at Yale, Williams finished the afternoon with a modest 156 yards while completing 15-of-23 passes with a pair of touchdowns and no interceptions. McManus hauled in more than half of those completions with eight catches for 89 yards and a score. Bramble's 113 yards on 23 carries marked his second 100-yard game of the season and third of his career as Dartmouth picked up 196 yards on the ground as a team.

Pujals, who led the Crusaders with 82 rushing yards on 19 carries, connected on 24-of-38 attempts for 208 yards and one touchdown, but was also picked off twice. Tyler Artim nearly matched McManus with eight receptions for 88 yards.

Defensively, junior linebacker Will McNamara racked up double-digit tackles for the third straight game with a team-high 10 stops while junior cornerback Vernon Harris added nine. Joining Donahue with an interception was junior nickelback Frankie Hernandez, which immediately answered the fumble that Holy Cross had forced in the second quarter. Fulleton and junior nose guard A.J. Zuttah had the two sacks for the Big Green.

Having completed its non-conference portion of the schedule, Dartmouth hits the road for its next Ivy game on Saturday at Columbia (0-5, 0-2), which has lost 16 consecutive games. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. Holy Cross will attempt to snap its skid in the last of four straight road games when it plays at Lafayette in a Patriot League contest next Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Notes: With his 64 rushing yards, Williams is now Dartmouth's all-time leading rusher among quarterbacks with 1,073 yards. He surpassed Jon Aljancic '97, who ran for 1,015 yards in his career ... the Big Green tied the all-time series against Holy Cross at 37-37-4 ... Bramble's other 100-yard game this year was a 104-yard effort in a 31-13 victory over Penn two weeks ago ... Teevens has now been the head coach for 145 games at Dartmouth, passing up Bob Blackman (1955-70) for the all-time lead ... Gakenheimer is 8-for-8 on field goals in his career, 5-for-5 this season ... McNamara leads the Ivy League with 10.8 tackles per game ... Dartmouth has had fewer total yards than its opponents in all five games this season (395-352 in this game).