First Road Test Comes at Holy Cross

Saturday, September 22

Worcester, Mass.

1:05 PM

Dartmouth College

Holy Cross

Jake Moen (54) and Jackson Perry (5)

Photo by: Matt and John Risley (Risley Sports)

9/20/2018 11:00:00 AM | Football

Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018 Memorial Field Patriot League Network Broadcast 94 ESPN Radio Live Stats @DartFootball Dartmouth Game Notes Holy Cross Game Notes

Dartmouth will attempt to knock off a Patriot League opponent for the second straight week

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (1-0) at
HOLY CROSS (1-2)
Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018 | 1:05 PM
Fitton Field | Worcester, Mass.

Coming off a 41-0 thumping of Georgetown in the season opener at Memorial Field, Dartmouth will try its hand on the road at another Patriot League team in Holy Cross. The Crusaders are coming off a 31-28 overtime victory over Yale after falling behind the Bulldogs, 21-0.

It is unlikely that Holy Cross has forgotten last year's defeat at the hands of the Big Green, a 27-26 overtime affair. The Crusaders tied the game with three seconds left in regulation, but Jeremiah Douchee blocked the extra-point attempt to force overtime. Dartmouth scored a touchdown for a seven-point lead, and when Holy Cross matched that touchdown, its two-point conversion try was foiled by Jake Moen and Danny McManus to give the Green the one-point win.

Last week, Dartmouth had a considerably easier time dispatching of the Hoyas than the Crusaders did of Yale with the Big Green's first season-opening shutout in 42 years. The defense was the big star, yielding a measly 112 yards (only 40 on the ground) while forcing four turnovers. One of the picks came courtesy of junior CB Isiah Swann, who was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, though it was more of an award for the entire team's effort.

No less than 29 players recorded at least one tackle, which doesn't include senior DE Jackson Perry who twice hurried the quarterback and preserved the shutout with a block on a 39-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter. Sophomore safety Niko Mermigas had the Big Green's other interception, while sophomore DL Jackson Yost forced a fumble and freshman DB John Pupel and junior DL T.J. Simpson each recovered a loose ball.

The offense churned quite nicely under sophomore QB Derek Kyler, making not only his first collegiate start, but playing in his first varsity game. He completed 15-of-21 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown, plus ran for a 5-yard score that gave the Green a 20-0 advantage at the intermission.

Senior RB Rashaad Cooper set the tone early with a 51-yard gallop and finished the day with 112 yards — his first career 100-yard game — on 16 carries with a touchdown. As a team, Dartmouth amassed 260 yards on the ground with four TDs.

A receiving corps that was without starters Hunter Hagdorn and Drew Estrada was led by senior WR Drew Hunnicutt with four grabs for 102 yards and a 31-yard grab in the end zone. Junior TE Connor Rempel also had four catches to help keep the ball moving in his first varsity game.

Special teams were mostly exactly that — special — with freshman PK Connor Davis proving his worth quickly by drilling field goals on each of the first two possessions. He also converted all five PATs and was even given a shot at a 51-yard attempt, but that fell just short.

The return game was just as good with senior Dylan Mellor returning four punts a total of 80 yards, including runs of 44 and 34 yards. The only opportunity to return a kickoff came at the start of the second half, which sophomore Niko Mermigas brought back 39 yards.

The punting numbers look a little short, but junior Davis Brief twice punted with a short field from Hoya territory, dropping both inside the 20, as Georgetown did not return any of the four punts.

Scouting the Crusaders
Holy Cross has made a habit of falling behind by big margins early before the offense makes its mark. In fact, the Crusaders have yet to score in the first 26 minutes of a game. That formula finally worked for them last week after falling behind Yale after less than 10 minutes, 21-0, only to rally for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and a field goal in overtime to knock off the defending Ivy League champs, 31-28.

Geoff Wade came off the bench against the Bulldogs to quarterback the offense facing that 21-0 deficit and proceeded to complete 17-of-28 passes for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also ended up being the Crusaders' leading rusher picking up 70 yards on just 11 carries with a touchdown. Not surprisingly, Wade is listed as the starter this week, replacing Emmett Clifford who started the first three contests.

While the rushing game has averaged over 150 yards a game, Holy Cross has picked up just 3.5 yards per carry. Miles Alexander and Domenic Cozier share the load, combining for 300 yards on 66 carries (4.5 per rush) with a touchdown apiece.

Blaise Bell has been the preferred receiving target with team highs of 13 catches and 123 yards. Overall the passing game has been possession-oriented as the top three receivers all average less than 10 yards per catch. When the Crusaders do go long, look for Spencer Gilliam (3 catches, 68 yards, 1 TD) to be on the receiving end.

The defense is led by linebacker Ryan Brady whose 40 tackles are nearly double that of any of his teammates. Nine of those stops have gone for a loss, and he ranks sixth and ninth among FCS defenders on a per-game basis (13.3 tackles and 2.3 TFL). Free safety Chris Riley has the team's lone interception, but overall the defense has allowed its opponents to gain nearly 470 yards per game.

Place kicker Derek Ng has been solid, converting all eight PATs while drilling 2-for-3 field goals with a long of 45 yards, that being the game-winnner against Yale. Cody Wilkinson averages 39 yards on 16 punts, seven of which have ended inside the 20, though Ng has also punted eight times. Dartmouth needs to take care on special teams — Holy Cross has blocked two kicks and had a successful onside kick late in the first half last week.

Bob Chesney is in his first year as the head football coach at the College of the Holy Cross in 2018. The 28th head coach in the history of the program, he has posted a winning record in each of his eight seasons as a collegiate head coach (23-9 in three years at Salve Regina and 44-16 in five years at Assumption). During his eight seasons at the helm of the two Division III programs, Chesney coached 94 all-conference selections and 12 All-Americans.

Watch Big Green vs. Crusaders
This game between Dartmouth and Holy Cross will be televised locally in Worcester by Charter TV3 with Kevin Shea and Andy Lacombe calling the action and Brenna Wilson reporting from the sidelines. The broadcast will also be available for free on the Patriot League Network (patriotleague.tv). As always, fans can also listen to Brett Franklin and Wayne Young '72 with the call on 94 ESPN Radio (94.3 and 94.5 FM in the Upper Valley, 945espn.com online).

Shutout!
Dartmouth began the season with a convincing 41-0 thrashing of Georgetown at Memorial Field, the first shutout on opening day since a 20-0 victory over Penn 42 years ago. It was also the Big Green's second shutout in their last four games having beaten Cornell last year, 10-0, and the largest margin of victory in a shutout since a 56-0 thrashing of Columbia in 2013. Coach Teevens has overseen eight shutouts during his 18-plus campaigns at Dartmouth, including the last season that featured two shutouts — 1990.

Opening Day
Historically, the Big Green have been quite successful in the first action of the year. Following the 41-0 victory over Georgetown, they have an overall record of 92-42-3, which includes a 49-game winning streak from 1895 to 1943. During the streak, Dartmouth outscored its opposition by a total of 1,562-52 with 39 shutouts. The Green also won 13 straight from 1960-72, and with the 41-0 win over Georgetown this season, currently are on a nine-game streak of success. Under Coach Teevens, Dartmouth is now 11-8 on opening day.

Dartmouth Season Openers Under Teevens
1987	H	Princeton	3-34	L
1988	H	Penn	27-33	L
1989	H	Princeton	14-20	L
1990	H	Penn	6-16	L
1991	A	Penn	21-15	W
2005	H	Colgate	26-21	W
2006	A	Colgate	7-28	L
2007	H	Colgate	28-31	L
2008	A	Colgate	20-34	L
2009	H	Colgate	15-34	L
2010	A	Bucknell	43-20	W
2011	H	Colgate	37-20	W
2012	H	Butler	35-7	W
2013	A	Butler	30-23	W
2014	H	Central Conn. State	35-25	W
2015	A	Georgetown	31-10	W
2016	H	New Hampshire	22-21	W
2017	A	Stetson	38-7	W
2018	H	Georgetown	41-0	W

11 Straight Non-League Wins
Dartmouth extended his streak of victories over teams from outside the Ivy League to 11 with the 41-0 win over the Hoyas on Sept. 15, the longest such streak since for Dartmouth since the Ivy League formed in 1956. Over the last 100 years, the Green have had only two other streaks as long versus teams that didn't become members of the Ancient Eight — 11 during the 1934-36 seasons and 26 from 1922-28.

Swann Ivy Defensive POTW
Junior Isiah Swann picked up some early hardware when the Ivy League named him the Defensive Player of the Week following the season-opening 41-0 shutout win over Georgetown. The cornerback didn't post gaudy numbers, but came up with the first interception of the season with a difficult over-the-shoulder deflection and grab, plus broke up two other passes and had a pair of tackles to earn the honor for the second time in his career.

100-Yard Performances
Dartmouth had a pair of players top the century mark against Georgetown with senior RB Rashaad Cooper galloping for 112 yards on 16 carries and senior WR Drew Hunnicutt catching four passes for 102 yards. It was the first 100-yard game for Cooper and third for Hunnicutt, with each finding the end zone once. The last receiver to get to 100 was Hunter Hagdorn, who hit the number on the nose against Columbia last year, while QB Jared Gerbino not only topped 100, but 200 on the ground in last year's season finale against Princeton (202).

Defense Denies
While Swann won the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week honor, the entire defense was playing well as an entire unit, yielding just three first downs and 112 total yards. Only five times since the 1970 season has an opponent had fewer yards (including last year's season opener, while the three first downs are the fewest in that span; the record is zero set in 1962 against Penn. Breaking it down, the Hoyas had just 40 rushing yards, the fourth straight game an opponent had less than 55 yards on the ground. And the 72 passing yards mark just the fourth time this millennium the opposition failed to amass 75 yards through the air.

Kyler Makes His Case
Sophomore QB Derek Kyler got the starting nod behind center for the season opener with junior Jared Gerbino unavailable with an injury, and he made the most of his opportunity in his first career varsity action, completing his first six passes before finishing the game 15-of-21 for 177 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown toss. That TD gave the Big Green at least one scoring strike in their last 12 games, the second-longest streak in program history (16 straight over the 2000-02 seasons). Kyler also ran four times for 22 yards with a 5-yard jaunt into the end zone for his first career points. Dartmouth had another player reach the end zone for the first time in sophomore RB Caylin Parker who sprinted 31 yards early in the fourth quarter for the final touchdown of the day.

1,200th Game
The win over Georgetown was the 1,200th game in the history of Dartmouth football, giving the Green a record of 698-456-46, which is a winning percentage of .601. Two more victories and Dartmouth will join an exclusive group of five other FCS teams with 700 wins, four of which are Ivy League squads — Yale (902), Harvard (869), Penn (850), Princeton (822) and North Dakota State (710). Other teams closing in on 700 are Lehigh (692) and Delaware (691).