34-18 Victory at Brown Boosts Big Green Into 3-Way Tie for First

Saturday, November 14

Providence, R.I.

12:30 PM

Dartmouth College

8-1-0 , 5-1

Brown

4-5-0 , 2-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Dartmouth

Brown

34-18 Victory at Brown Boosts Big Green Into 3-Way Tie for First

11/14/2015 3:14:00 PM | Football

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In a game featuring 13 turnovers, the 23rd-ranked Dartmouth football team was able to build up a 28-point lead before settling for a 34-18 victory at Brown on Saturday afternoon. But the Big Green (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) celebration when the final horn sounded escalated into a frenzy when the news of Penn's 35-25 victory at Harvard today filtered through the team, leaving Dartmouth tied atop the Ivy League standings with the Quakers and Crimson with one game to play.

Two of the Ivy League's best passing teams both had trouble doing much of anything through the air due to an extremely windy afternoon. Dartmouth quarterback Dalyn Williams completed 11-of-22 passes for a season-low 122 yards and a touchdown while getting picked off three times; he had thrown only one interception all season entering the game. Meanwhile, the Big Green defense held the third-ranked passing offense in the FCS to a mere 95 yards and picked off four throws.

Instead, both teams uncharacteristically turned to the ground game to advance the ball. Dartmouth began the day leading the nation in rush defense, but the Bears — among the bottom 10 in rushing in the FCS — used a variety of misdirections and option-reads to gain 179 yards on the ground, led by reserve quarterback Kyle Moreno with 78 on 14 carries, one of which ended in the end zone.

The Big Green just about matched Brown's output with 171 rushing yards of their own thanks to the tailback tandem of seniors Kyle Bramble (17 carries, 93 yards, 1 TD) and Brian Grove (eight carries for a career-high 90 yards, 1 TD).

Dartmouth took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to two of the four Brown turnovers in the opening 15 minutes of play. Junior Lucas Bavaro jarred the ball loose from a Bear ball carrier, and senior Zach Slafsky pounced on it at the Big Green 39 a little more than 10 minutes into the game. On the very next play, Grove found a big hole through the left side and sprinted 61 yards for the touchdown.

When junior Alex McCrory forced another Brown fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Dartmouth enjoyed terrific field position at the Bear 19 as sophomore Kyran McKinney-Crudden secured the loose ball. Three Ryder Stone rushes later, the Big Green had their second touchdown of the day and that 14-0 advantage.

Dartmouth squandered another golden opportunity when senior Vernon Harris picked off a pass for the second time in the first quarter, bringing it back to the Brown 25. After advancing to the two, Williams had his pass into the end zone tipped up by a receiver, and Quintin Rizek made the diving catch for a Bear touchback.

Brown controlled play in the second quarter with its offense on the field for just over 12 minutes. Yet the Big Green still managed to outscore the hosts. The Bears strung together a 13-play, 80-yard drive with the wind, spanning more than half of the quarter, capped by Seth Rosenbauer's five-yard burst up the middle. But senior defensive tackle A.J. Zuttah got a hand on the PAT to keep the lead at eight points at 14-6.

That eight-point lead increased just 14 seconds later as Stone fielded the kick and weaved his way 89 yards through the coverage for a touchdown.

The Bears got one more chance to score before the intermission when Dartmouth muffed a very low punt into the wind and Brown recovered at the Big Green 20 with eight seconds on the clock. A roughing the passer penalty advanced the ball 10 yards, but the 27-yard field goal attempt sailed wide to the right as the clock expired, leaving the score at 21-6.

The second half was just as wild, beginning with a Brown fumble on the third play from scrimmage, forced by senior David Caldwell and gathered up by senior Will Konstant at the Brown 42. When Dartmouth faced a 4th-and-18 from the Bear 24. Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens decided the windy conditions were too unpredictable, so he decided to go for it. The gamble paid off handsomely as Williams threw his best pass of the day, a 24-yard strike into the waiting arms of junior Houston Brown for the score. The snap was high on the attempted point after, leaving the Green with a 27-6 advantage.

The two teams traded interceptions with senior Eric Wickham taking the honors for Dartmouth. That led to an eight-play, 32-yard drive with Bramble traversing the final two yards for the touchdown and a 34-6 lead.

The game appeared all but wrapped up when Bavaro snared the fourth Big Green interception of the day with 11:39 to play. But three Dartmouth turnovers led to a pair of Brown touchdowns, the first coming after a fumble handoff at the Big Green 12, the second on a fumbled snap in the end zone that was recovered by Robert Hughes. The two scores came within the span of 25 seconds, and suddenly the Bears trailed 34-18 — both PATs failed thanks to a bad snap and another Zuttah block — with 4:29 to play. Yet Dartmouth recovered the onside kick and managed to run out the clock to preserve the win and earn a share of first place.

Caldwell led all players with a career-high 10 tackles while senior linebacker Will McNamara added eight more stops. For the Bears, Jordan Ferguson not only tied for the team lead with seven tackles, but also picked off a pass and recovered a fumble.

Dartmouth will try to earn a share of its first Ivy League title since 1996 when it hosts Princeton (5-4, 2-4 Ivy) at noon next Saturday in a game televised by the American Sports Network and simulcast on the Ivy League Digital Network. Brown will complete its season at Columbia (2-7, 1-5 Ivy) on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Notes: A win over Princeton next week would not only earn Dartmouth at least a share of its first Ivy title in 19 years (for a record 18 crowns in program history), but it would also give the senior class 29 victories, matching the most by a Dartmouth class since the 10-game schedule was instituted in 1980 (class of 1994 and 1998 both won 29) ... the most won over any four-year stretch at Dartmouth was 32 from 1969-72 ... Dartmouth picked off four passes in a game for the first time since a 27-19 win over Holy Cross on Oct. 16, 2010 … the Big Green weren't even halfway to the school record, however, which is nine against Yale back in 1939 … the seven turnovers for Brown are the most by a Dartmouth opponent since Cornell coughed the ball up seven times on Nov. 3, 2007 in another wild game that the Green won, 59-31 … the 85 total yards for Dalyn Williams on the day were his fewest in 31 games as the starting quarterback. His previous low was 113 against Bucknell as a sophomore, and his fewest against an Ivy team was 141, also against Brown on the same field two years ago … Williams had never thrown three interceptions in a game in his collegiate career, and only once had he thrown even two, that coming against Princeton in the final game of his sophomore campaign … Williams had thrown three interceptions in his previous 15 games combined … the last opponent to pick off three Dartmouth passes in a game was Harvard back in 2010 ... Ryder Stone became the first Big Green player to return a kickoff for a touchdown since Kirby Schoenthaler accomplished the feat with a 79-yard return against Sacred Heart three years ago … his 89-yard return was also the longest for a touchdown since Shawn Abuhoff had a 94-yard TD against Brown in 2008 … Schoenthaler did return a kick 92 yards last year at New Hampshire, but did not reach the end zone.