Teevens Wins 100th at Dartmouth in 42-10 Homecoming Victory

Saturday, October 12

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Drew Estrada hauls in one of his touchdown passes out of the reach of his defender.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Teevens Wins 100th at Dartmouth in 42-10 Homecoming Victory

10/12/2019 4:37:00 PM | Football

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Drew Estrada had 203 receiving yards and two long touchdowns

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — A showdown between two of the five unbeaten teams in the FCS turned into a blowout as host Dartmouth gave a homecoming crowd of 8,796 plenty to cheer about in a 42-10 drubbing of Yale on Saturday at Memorial Field. The victory was the 100th for Buddy Teevens as the Dartmouth head coach, and Drew Estrada caught two long touchdown passes while becoming just the fourth Big Green receiver with 200 yards to help keep Dartmouth (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) with an unblemished record. Yale fell to 3-1 on the season and 1-1 in the Ivy League.

Teevens, the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach who is chasing the position's namesake for the all-time record at Dartmouth (104), wasn't preoccupied much with the milestone victory. "It simply means I've been here for a long time," he joked at the postgame press conference with the media. "It certainly is nice to reach that number, but win No. 101 is more important right now."

Big plays haunted the visiting Bulldogs all day as Estrada hauled in a 75-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage and a 61-yard score in the third quarter as part of his 203-yard day on only five receptions. Jared Gerbino threw both of those touchdowns and finished the day with a career-high 224 yards while completing a mere 5-of-7 passes. Derek Kyler was a perfect 5-for-5 behind center, running the 2-minute offense to perfection before the half, racking up 91 yards and a 31-yard touchdown to Hunter Hagdorn.

Those big plays led to 433 yards of offense despite the Big Green running just 45 plays, a 9.6-yard average that is the most for the team in at least 50 years. Yale had the ball for 38-and-a-half minutes and ran 81 plays, but amassed just 384 yards and one touchdown that came in the game's final minute.

The Dartmouth defense came up with big plays as well. Safeties Niko Mermigas and Quinten Arello — a rookie making his first career start — each picked off a pass in the first quarter that led to Big Green touchdowns. And three times the Bulldogs went for it on fourth down in the second half, each time being denied by Dartmouth, including a 4th-and-1 stop by Jackson Perry late in the third quarter.

After Estrada beat his man by five yards on his 75-yard touchdown catch, Mermigas picked off a Yale pass at the Bulldog 42 in the middle of the first quarter. A 25-yard completion to Estrada set up a 6-yard run into the end zone by Gerbino, who led Dartmouth with 59 rushing yards on 11 carries.

The next Yale possession lasted just three plays as Arello stepped in front of a receiver and returned the interception 13 yards to the Bulldog 18. Kyler made his second appearance behind center on a 3rd-and-goal from the 12, taking a page out of Gerbino's book to run the distance to the end zone for a 21-0 lead with little more than a minute left in the opening quarter.

The Bulldogs dented the scoreboard in the second quarter with a 42-yard Sam Tuckerman field goal, then had an opportunity to close the gap even further with a 16-play drive that took nearly 8 minutes, placing them on the Big Green 6. But Yale decided to settle for a 23-yard field goal, only to have the kick sail wide right with 1:39 until halftime.

In the second half, it took Dartmouth all of three plays to add to its 28-3 lead, once again with Gerbino hitting Estrada in stride down the right sideline for the 61-yard jaunt to the end zone. After stopping Yale on downs at the Big Green 33, Gerbino orchestrated another 3-play touchdown drive with the big play a jump pass to tight end Robbie Mangas that turned into a 58-yard gain. The very next play, Dakari Falconer took a handoff and went 10 yards for his first career touchdown and an insurmountable 42-3 Dartmouth lead.

It wasn't until the game's final minute that the Bulldogs found their way into the end zone on a Nolan Grooms 12-yard pass to Darrion Carrington.

Yale starting quarterback Kurt Rawlings ended a rough day 15-of-26 for 143 yards and two interceptions. Twice he left the game after being shaken up, only to return to the field after each hit. Melvin Rouse II led all Bulldogs with six catches and 65 yards, while Alan Lamar led the ground game with 48 yards on 11 carries.

Teevens got to play a large chunk of his roster in the game, and nickelback John Pupel led the Dartmouth defense with nine tackles while Mermigas added eight. The Big Green also broke up nine Bulldog passes, four by cornerback Darren Stanley and another two by All-America corner Isiah Swann, making his season debut.

Dartmouth will play its final non-conference game of the year next Saturday at Marist (1-4). The game will be streamed on the Red Fox Network, while Big Green fans can also tune in to Brett Franklin and Wayne Young '72 for a free audio broadcast through DartmouthSports.com.

Notes: The program record for receiving yards in a game is held by Jack Daly '84, who caught nine passes for 219 yards against Colgate in 1982. With the lopsided score, Estrada did not even take the field in the fourth quarter … Dartmouth averaged 25.4 yards per completion, the second-highest figure for the Big Green (minimum 10 completions). The highest is 26.1 yards (11 completions, 287 yards) in a 41-0 win over Columbia in 1986 … only three times in the last 50 years has Dartmouth run fewer than 45 plays on offense, and each instance was 44 plays. Two of those games are against Yale (1976 and 1982), and all three were Big Green losses … Gerbino's passing efficiency rating for the game was 434.51, boosting his season figure to 236.30, which would lead the NCAA but he doesn't have the minimum passing attempts to qualify … Dartmouth did not have an interception all season until today, one year after leading the league with 16.