Final Non-Conference Game at Memorial Field on Saturday Night

Saturday, October 13

Hanover, N.H.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Sacred Heart

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Photo by: Tom McNeill (www.tommcneillphotography.com)

Final Non-Conference Game at Memorial Field on Saturday Night

10/11/2018 1:56:00 PM | Football

Saturday, October 13, 2018 Memorial Field ESPN+ Broadcast 94 ESPN Radio Teevens TeleTeaser Live Stats @DartFootball Dartmouth Notes Sacred Heart Notes

Big Green looking for 13th straight victory against teams outside of the Ivy League

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (4-0) vs.
SACRED HEART (3-2)
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018 | 6 PM | ESPN+
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.

Not only is Dartmouth attempting to maintain its perfect record this season when it hosts Sacred Heart on Saturday night, it is also trying to extend its 12-game winning streak against competition from outside the Ivy League, the Big Green's longest since the conference started formal play in 1956.

Having suffered a 29-26 loss at home to Dartmouth last year, Sacred Heart is looking to exact some revenge and avoid three straight defeats against teams from the Ancient Eight. The Big Green had to rally late to beat the Pioneers last year with two TD passes in the second half (and a successful two-point PAT for the first time in 10 years) to erase a 26-14 deficit.

Last week, Dartmouth toppled the defending Ivy League champion, Yale, in front of a national television audience on ESPNU, 41-18. Junior wildcat QB Jared Gerbino — back at full strength after missing the first two games — stole the headlines by rushing for 169 yards on 20 carries as the Green ran for 347 yards as a team, their most since 2011.

Sophomore Caylin Parker provided a highlight by sprinting 66 yards for a touchdown at the outset of the third quarter, boosting the Dartmouth lead to 34-10. He finished the game with 79 yards on just five rushes, and now he is one of three players on the roster with at least 200 rushing yards this year — senior Rashaad Cooper (210), Gerbino (206) and Parker (200).

With the ground game in full stride, sophomore QB Derek Kyler mostly rested his arm. The nation's leader in completion percentage (74.1 percent) threw just eight passes, completing five for 96 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown just before the half expired to give Dartmouth a 27-10 lead going into the locker room. The Big Green as a team attempted just 10 throws all night, the fewest in 23 years.

It wasn't like Kyler didn't have any good targets at which to throw; Dartmouth simply didn't need to throw the ball. One of Kyler's five completions was a 47-yard bomb to Drew Hunnicutt, who leads the team in catches (16) and yardage (331). Both junior TE Connor Rempel and junior WR Drew Estrada have caught the ball 11 times, while junior WR Hunter Hagdorn snared a 16-yard TD toss last week, leaving him four catches shy of the Big Green top-10 receivers.

After three dominant performances to start the season, the Dartmouth defense got tested a bit more by Yale. But the Green generally bent without breaking, surrendering a season-high 428 yards. But it took the Bulldogs' 80 plays to do so with nearly 40 percent of those yards coming in the fourth quarter after Dartmouth had built up a 34-10 bulge.

Senior LB Jack Traynor, who had nine tackles at Yale, tops the team with 28 stops, while senior DL Rocco Di Leo — an FCS Defensive Player of the Week honorable mention — shares the league lead with 5.5 tackles for a loss, including three sacks. The secondary features the nation's leader in interceptions (5) in junior CB Isiah Swann, twice named the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week this year. Swann added to his total at Yale with a 54-yard pick-six with 31 seconds to play. Dartmouth has won the turnover battle every week, allowing them to lead the country in turnover margin (+2.25).

Freshman kicker Connor Davis has been busy, booting five field goals in 10 attempts, some of which have tested his big leg, like his 44-yarder against Penn, the longest by a Dartmouth kicker in seven years. On the punting end, junior Davis Brief finally got to stretch his leg at Yale after punting six times with a short field in the first three contests. His three punts against the Bulldogs, all coming in the fourth quarter, produced a career-high 48.0-yard average, including a pair of boots of 50-plus yards and two inside the 20.

Scouting the Pioneers
Sacred Heart opened the season with three consecutive victories, all in convincing fashion, but has not fared as well the last two weeks against Ivy League teams. First, the Pioneers took it on the chin at Cornell, 43-24, then rallied from a 24-0 deficit to take the lead against Penn, only to give up the game-winning score in the final two minutes of a 31-27 defeat.

This year's version of the Pioneers features a nice offensive balance, averaging a little more than 200 yards per game both on the ground and through the air. Kevin Duke, a graduate student, lines up behind center and has completed 54.7 percent of his passes to amass 1,076 yards and 10 touchdowns, but has thrown five interceptions. He is also exceptionally mobile with nearly 60 rushing yards per game.

The Sacred Heart running game, however, is anchored by Jordan Meachum. The senior has 501 yards in five games with four touchdowns — two coming against Penn — but he has not topped 80 yards in any of the past three contests. His understudy, freshman Julius Chestnut, has taken the ball 50 times but picks up just 3.5 yards per carry, well shy of Meachum's 5.3 and Duke's 5.9.

The Pioneers don't feature one or two receivers, but rather have five different players with anywhere from 109 to 201 yards, while eight receivers account for the 10 touchdown grabs. Andrew O'Neill began the year as the go-to guy with a team-high 67.0 receiving yards per game, but he has not played in either of the last two contests. Naseim Brantley has picked up the slack, nearly matching his numbers in the last three games after missing the first two. Big Green fans might also recognize a familiar face among the receivers; former Dartmouth wideout Charles Mack is playing as a graduate transfer and has four receptions for 65 yards.

While Sacred Heart has been effective against the pass, ranking fourth nationally in yards allowed through the air, opposing running backs have found holes at the line, averaging about 185 yards a game. Linebacker Mike Wilen's 33 tackles lead the squad and Salaam Horne has 30, while linemen Chris Agyemang and Aaron Donalson have combined for 8.5 sacks and 14.5 tackles for a loss.

If the Pioneers struggle to move the ball, they have a capable punter in Noah Gettman, averaging over 40 yards on his 28 kicks. Josh Freira handles the place-kicking duties, converting 16-of-17 PATs but only two of his four field goal tries, the longest from just 30 yards. Lucas Nunez is the top kick returner with a 94-yard TD sprint to his credit.

Now in his seventh year at the helm of the Pioneer program, and 25th overall, is Mark Nofri, a 1993 graduate of Keene State. He received the NEC Coach of the Year award in both 2013 and '14 while leading Sacred Heart to two straight berths in the FCS playoffs, right after he recorded a 2-9 mark in his first year at the helm. Sacred Heart improved by eight wins in 2013 to 10, then won nine more the following season, but faltered against Fordham in the playoffs both times. Nofri and his wife, Julie, have two sons — Mark and Matthew.

Looking for Lucky 13
A win over Sacred Heart would not only give Dartmouth a 5-0 record for the second straight year and third time in the last four seasons, but it would also extend its streak of victories over teams from outside the Ivy League to 13. It is the longest such streak for the Big Green since the Ivy League formed in 1956. Over the last 100 years, the Green have had only one other streak that was longer versus teams that didn't become members of the Ancient Eight — 26 from 1922-28.

ESPN+
Last spring, the Ivy League announced it had signed a 10-year agreement with ESPN to have the schools of the Ancient Eight stream live athletics events through the network's new subscription streaming service, ESPN+. For just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year), fans can get all of the content they received for the previous five years on the Ivy League Network, plus events from numerous other conferences and professional leagues. Eight of the 10 football games this fall will be available on ESPN+, and the game at Yale on Oct. 5 was televised on ESPNU. Go to watchespn.com to subscribe to the service and sign up for the package you prefer.

Last Year's Meeting
It took Dartmouth all of 16 seconds to score to start the contest between these two teams a year ago with a 78-yard bomb to Drew Hunnicutt on the game's first play from scrimmage. But after Sacred Heart scored 16 unanswered points in the second quarter for a 23-14 advantage, the Pioneers tacked on a field goal to increase their lead to a dozen points. QB Jack Heneghan then went to work, twice finding WR Emory Thompson in the end zone to take a 29-26 lead, but with more than 12 minutes still to play. The defense was up to the task, forcing one punt and intercepting two passes — one at the Big Green 2 — on the final two drives to secure the win.

National Television Success
The game against Yale was televised nationally on ESPNU, Dartmouth's sixth appearance on an ESPN network (fifth live), but first in 28 years. The first appearance was a tape-delayed broadcast in 1979 against Brown, while the most recent four occurred during the 1988-90 seasons. The Big Green and Bulldogs have now played 14 games on television with Yale still holding an 8-6 advantage, though Dartmouth has won the last three.

Perfect But Unranked
There are only four undefeated teams remaining at the FCS level, and three of those four teams find themselves in the top-25 polls. The lone team still unranked is yours truly, the Dartmouth Big Green. North Dakota State (5-0) sits atop both the STATS and coaches polls; Colgate (5-0) is 17th (coach) and 20th (STATS); Princeton is 21st (coach) and 25th (STATS). But the Green are knocking on the door in both polls among the next few teams receiving votes.

Gerbino Takeover
After missing the first two games of the season, junior Jared Gerbino had a modest season debut with 37 rushing yards on nine carries in a 37-14 win over Penn. But in the first half at Yale, the Dartmouth offense primarily became the Gerbino show as he racked up 152 of his 169 yards on the ground, and both touchdowns, in the first half to help build a 27-10 advantage at the break. It may be surprising to learn that it was only Gerbino's second foray over 100 yards in his career (202 against Princeton last year) and third over even 40 (71 at Penn last year).

Dartmouth Takeaway
No team in the FCS has done a better job of taking away the football while also protecting it. At Yale, Dartmouth forced three turnovers (two picks, one fumble) while giving it away just once. For the season, Big Green opponents have coughed the ball up a dozen times while Dartmouth has done so only thrice, giving the team a turnover margin of plus-2.25, which leads the nation.

TD Passes in 15 Straight
When Derek Kyler connected with Hunter Hagdorn on a 16-yard touchdown pass just before halftime at Yale (one of just 10 passes attempted by the Big Green, fewest in 23 years), it extended Dartmouth's streak of at least one TD pass to 15 straight games. The only longer streak in program history is a 16-game stretch during the 2000-02 seasons. Dartmouth has also had a TD throw in 26 of the last 27 and 35 of the last 37 contests.

Possession is 9/10ths of the Win
It is a good thing victories aren't totally dependent on how long a team has the ball as Yale ended up with the ball for eight more minutes than the Big Green (partly due to quick Dartmouth scores) in the 41-18 victory on Oct. 5. Even with that disparity, Dartmouth enters this weekend still leading the FCS in average time of possession at 35:16 per game.

Swann Keeps Quarter Streak Alive
As the clock wound down at Yale, it looked as if Dartmouth's streak of scoring in every quarter this season would come to an end after gaining just 25 yards and one first down in the fourth quarter. But junior Isiah Swann came to the rescue, picking off a pass (his FCS leading fifth of the year) and returning it 54 yards to the end zone with just 31 ticks left to keep the streak alive. The Green are one of only three FCS teams to score in every quarter in four consecutive games this year; the other two are James Madison and this week's opponent, Sacred Heart, neither of which won all four of those games.

Parker Parkour
Three plays into the second half at Yale, sophomore Caylin Parker was handed the ball to pick up a yard to keep the drive alive on a 3rd-and-1 play. Instead, he did his own version of football parkour, bouncing off several bodies at the line before emerging free and clear for a 66-yard touchdown run. It was the longest run by a Big Green player since Kyle Bramble broke off a 70-yard scoring sprint against Brown in 2013.

Di Leo Di Sackmaster
Fifth-year senior Rocco Di Leo entered the game at Yale with 1.5 career sacks, but more than doubled that total by getting to the quarterback all by himself twice. The first came late in the third quarter after the Bulldogs had crossed midfield, helping to stop that drive cold, while the second sealed the victory with three minutes to play on fourth down in Dartmouth territory and the Green holding a 16-point lead. He also added another tackle for a loss, adding to his season total of 5.5, which is tied for the league lead.

No Brief Punts
Over the first three games, junior punter Davis Brief generally found himself in games facing a short field as six of his 10 punts came on the other side of midfield, which left his punting average on the low side. Although he wasn't called upon at Yale until the fourth quarter, Brief was able to stretch his leg, so to speak, and made the most of the opportunity with a pair of punts over 50 yards and another that ended up inside the 20. His three punts produced a career-best 48.0-yard average, and the best by the Big Green for a game in eight years.

Three Quarters
While coaches love to say that they have to play hard for all four quarters (or 60 minutes), Dartmouth has found a way to make that statement excessive. Through the first four games, the Big Green have all but wrapped up each contest by building up a 24-point lead or greater by the time their opponent gets the ball in the fourth quarter. Of the 46 points allowed, 29 have come in the fourth quarter when the game was well in hand. If you take the combined stats from those first three quarters and extrapolate those out, opponents would average only 160 yards of offense and seven first downs per game.

Slowing the Running Game
The Dartmouth defense has been particularly effective against the run game since the start of last year. Only four opposing players have rushed for even 50 yards in a game in that span (14 games) — two from Harvard and two from Yale — with the highest total by one rusher being 86 courtesy of the Crimson's Charlie Booker. The Big Green have allowed just 71.8 yards on the ground per game this year, which ranks fourth in the FCS.