Final Non-Conference Game at Marist for First Time

Saturday, October 19

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. / Leonidoff Field

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Marist

Jared Gerbino has the BIg Green running free and clear thus far in 2019.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Final Non-Conference Game at Marist for First Time

10/16/2019 1:44:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019 Tenney Stadium Red Fox Network Broadcast Audio Broadcast Live Stats @DartFootball Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth has never played Marist on the giridiron previously

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (4-0)
at MARIST (1-4)
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019 | 12 PM | Red Fox Network
Tenney Stadium | Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

With a pair of Ivy League victories under their belt, the Dartmouth Big Green take a break from the Ancient Eight to take on a brand-new opponent, Marist. The Red Foxes are Dartmouth's second first-time foe this year, the first time the Green have had two in one season since 1950.

The Big Green have won nine straight games against teams the first time they play them, beginning with a 29-20 triumph over Rutgers in 1952, all the way to the season-opening, 35-6 victory at Jacksonville last month. That isn't the only streak on the line as Dartmouth has won 15 straight against teams from outside of the Ivy League, its longest such streak since the conference began play in 1956.

Last week, the Big Green treated their homecoming crowd to a 42-10 thumping of the then-undefeated Yale Bulldogs, the preseason favorite to win the league. Dartmouth scored on the game's second play, crossed the goal line twice more in the first quarter and built up a 42-3 lead with more than five minutes left in the third quarter en route to a decisive victory.

The star of the game was WR Drew Estrada, named the Ivy Offensive Player of the Week and Gold Helmet honoree for becoming the fourth player in Big Green history with 200 receiving yards in a game (career-high 203). The senior needed just five catches to pass that threshold, including TD grabs at the start of each half of 75 and 61 yards, respectively. Now he is on the verge of reaching 1,000 yards for his career, needing just 33 to reach the milestone.

Both of Estrada's scores were delivered by QB Jared Gerbino, who finished the day with a career-high 224 passing yards on a mere five completions in seven attempts, not to mention a 6-yard romp into the end zone himself. The quarterbacking tandem was out in full force with Derek Kyler going 5-for-5 for 91 yards and a TD plus a 12-yard scoring scamper of his own. The duo, along with Jake Pallotta, have combined for a passing efficiency rating over 200 to lead the FCS.

With the passing game eating up 330 yards, Dartmouth ended up with just 103 on the ground, its lowest total in a victory since … the last homecoming win over Yale two years ago (70). Gerbino led the team with 59 of those yards on 11 carries, and Dakari Falconer added 25 with a 10-yard TD trot. The Big Green don't feature any player that averages 50 rushing yards a game, yet still put up over 170 per contest.

On the other side of the ball, the defense continued to impress, holding Yale to three points until the final minute. Interceptions by safeties Niko Mermigas and Quinten Arello in the first quarter — the first two for the Green this season — set up a pair of touchdowns, and the Bulldogs failed to convert any of their three fourth-down attempts.

Linebacker Nigel Alexander leads the squad with 29 tackles while fellow LB and co-captain Jack Traynor has 25. The return of the other co-captain, All-America CB Isiah Swann, was a boost to the defense while another CB, Darren Stanley, broke up four Yale passes. Jackson Perry and Niko Lalos lead the linemen with 3.5 tackles for a loss and 1.5 sacks apiece.

The special teams operations have been strong with Connor Davis 20-of-20 on PATs with a 39-yard field goal in his lone attempt, and Davis Brief has been a reliable punter. But Dartmouth is the only team in the country that has yet to return a kickoff.

Scouting the Red Foxes
Since knocking off Stetson, 26-23, in its Pioneer Football League opener, Marist has suffered losses by Cornell, Drake and San Diego by a combined 62 points to fall to 1-4 on the season and 1-2 in league play.

Points have been hard to come by for the Red Foxes with only two FCS teams scoring fewer than their 12 points a game, and three times they have been held to single digits. The running game has produced only 68.2 yards on average, most of which has been gained by RB Mekhai Johnson who picks up 4.7 yards per carry (though he did not play in the team's last game two weeks ago).

Austin Day and Luke Strnad have split the quarterbacking duties so far with Day getting the bulk of the action at San Diego. He was victimized four times by interceptions by the Toreros, however, and on the season has two TDs and six picks while completing 55.9 percent of his passes for 737 yards.

The receiving corps is led by Anthony Olivencia with 22 catches, 379 yards and three TDs. Jon Kanda (19 rec., 234 yds.) and Ethan Carpenter (16 for 171) are the other main targets for the Red Foxes.

The defense has surrendered over 440 yards per game with more than 200 from both the rushing and passing games. Safety Kyle Fleitman leads Marist with 33 tackles and boasts one of the two interceptions, a forced fumble and fumble recovery. Linebackers Peter Delatour (3.0 sacks) and Grant Dixon (2.0 sacks) are the opportunistic pass rushers.

Special teams have been quite good with Luke Paladino having converted every PAT (7-of-7) and field goal (3-of-3) thrown at him, including a long of 49 yards in the win over Stetson. Dominic Donohue has been solid punting the ball, averaging 36.0 yards with five inside the 20 and no touchbacks. The return game has brought kickoffs back at 21.1 yards per attempt and punts at 10.7 yards.

Head coach Jim Parady is in the middle of his 28th season as the Red Foxes' head coach and sports a 139-149-1 record overall and 99-72-1 in conference play. Marist has won four league titles under Parady, three in the MAAC and the most recent in the PFL in 2013 in their fifth year in the loop. Originally from Nashua, Parady is a 1983 graduate of Maine where he earned two varsity letters as a QB.

15 Straight Non-League Victories
Dartmouth has won its last 15 non-conference games dating back to the 2014 season, beginning with a 24-21 victory over Holy Cross. It is the longest such win streak for the Big Green during the Ivy League era that began in 1956. You would have to go back to the 1922-28 seasons to find a longer win streak against teams that did not eventually form the Ivy league (26). And the last five wins in the streak have been by a combined 190-23 tally.

Big Green Debut in Polls
With a 4-0 start to the 2019 season, Dartmouth made its debut at No. 21 in both the AFCA Coaches Poll and STATS FCS Poll this week. The Big Green aren't the only Ivy League team in the rankings with Princeton ranked 16th by the coaches and 17th by STATS. Nor is Dartmouth the only team from the Granite State in the polls with New Hampshire debuting this week as well at 22nd (STATS) and 23rd (coaches). This is the first time the two Division I schools in the state of New Hampshire have been ranked in the same week since the end of the 1996 season (h/t Chris Duffy at the Union Leader).

Buddying Up to 100 Victories
With the 42-10 victory over Yale on Oct. 12, Buddy Teevens became just the second head football coach in Dartmouth history to win 100 games with the Big Green. The 63-year-old Teevens currently owns a 100-92-2 record at Dartmouth, which leaves him just four behind the all-time leader, the legendary Bob Blackman, whose name also graces the endowed coaching position inhabited by Teevens. No other Big Green coach has as many as 60 in Hanover. If Dartmouth can at least repeat its 9-1 record from a year ago, Teevens would surpass Blackman as the school's winningest football coach.

Estrada Earns Weekly Accolades
Senior WR Drew Estrada posted 203 receiving yards on just five catches, two for touchdowns, in the 42-10 homecoming win over Yale on Oct. 12. That put him in elite company in Dartmouth history as just the fourth player to top 200 yards in a game. His performance not only garnered him Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week recognition, but also the Gold Helmet Award as the top Division I player in New England for the week. This is the 13th Gold Helmet given to a Big Green player since the start of the 2009 season.

Bombs Away
So just how did Drew Estrada pile up a career-high 203 receiving yards with just five catches against Yale? Start with a 75-yard touchdown bomb on the game's second play from scrimmage and cap the day with a 61-yard scoring strike early in the third quarter, both courtesy of Jared Gerbino. The senior QB threw only seven passes, completing five, and amassed even more yards than Estrada with a career-high 224. The three Dartmouth QBs — Gerbino, Derek Kyler and Jake Pallotta — have combined to complete 74.4 percent of their passes with an efficiency of 201.67 (both best in the FCS). Dartmouth is also one of just three teams to not throw an interception this year along with top-ranked North Dakota State and season-opening opponent Jacksonville.

Six in a Row
Dating back to last season, the Big Green have won six consecutive games. It may surprise some people to find out that is the third-longest win streak in the FCS going, behind only No. 1 North Dakota State (27 in a row) and Ivy League rival Princeton (14). The last team to beat the Tigers just happens to be Dartmouth in a wild 54-44 affair to end the 2017 season. Jared Gerbino ran for 202 yards and four touchdowns in the game, including the go-ahead score with one second on the clock.

Scoring Early and Often
• Dartmouth has scored at least one touchdown in the first quarter in each of its last 12 games, scoring first in 11 of those contests.
• The Big Green have scored points in the opening quarter in each of the last 18 games as well.
• Since the start of the 2018 season, Dartmouth has only trailed for a total of 15 minutes and 58 seconds — barely a full quarter over 14 games.
• On the flip side, the Green have not allowed a score yet this season in the opening quarter. The last time the program did not give up a single point in the first quarter came in 1970 (that team went undefeated and earned the Lambert Trophy).
• The last team to hold the Green without a touchdown in a game was Yale back in 2011, a span of 80 games. The school record for scoring at least one TD is 109 consecutive games from 1961-73.

Possession Not 9/10 of the Score
You've heard the expression, "Possession is 9/10ths of the law," right? Well, possession has had very little to do with Dartmouth's success this season. Time of possession that is. Only 11 FCS offenses have averaged less time on the field than the Big Green's at 27:21 per game (one of those 11 is Marist at 26:13). Yet Dartmouth has managed to outscore its opponents, 143-34. The difference was even more pronounced in the 42-10 win over Yale as the Bulldogs held the ball for 38:30 compared to 21:30 for the Green. Dartmouth still managed to produce more yards (433 to 387) and obviously many more points.

Nearly a First Down Every Play
Dartmouth ran just 45 plays of offense in the 42-10 win over Yale, yet still amassed 433 yards. Over the last 50 years, those 9.6 yards per play are the most for the Big Green in a game, while the 45 plays are the fewest save for three games (all three had 44 plays). Each of those three games turned out to be Dartmouth losses, two coming against Yale. When the Green have run 53 plays or fewer in a game since 1969, they have a record of 4-19.

Offensive Line Getting It Done
A big question mark for Dartmouth entering the season was how the offensive line would play after losing four all-conference starters to graduation last year. Well, considering that opponents have sacked Big Green quarterbacks all of one time this season (that on the third-to-last play at Jacksonville) and lead the nation in both completion percentage and passing efficiency, plus that Dartmouth averages nearly five yards per rush, I'd say the line is holding up quite nicely, thank you very much.

TD Passes the Norm
Over its last 37 games, Dartmouth has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 35 of those contests, including the 24 of the last 25. The only two games without one came in last year's 24-17 victory over Harvard when the Green completed just four passes for 49 yards (their fewest in the last 24 seasons), and in 2016 against Brown when Jack Heneghan '17 set the school record with 440 yards through the air, yet could not land one in the end zone. And of the last six times Dartmouth failed to throw a TD toss (dating back to 2013), Harvard has been the opponent four times.

Defense Bends, Doesn't Break
Although Yale moved the chains 27 times in Dartmouth's 42-10 homecoming victory on Oct. 12, the Bulldogs could only muster 10 points, the last seven coming in the final minute. Since 1969, the Big Green defense has surrendered more than 20 first downs 181 times, but the opponent has scored fewer than 10 points in just four of those games, and none in which they had 27 first downs or more. Dartmouth's record in those 181 contests? 59-120-2.

Interception Interruption Interrupted
Last year, Dartmouth led the Ivy League and ranked 16th nationally with 16 interceptions. Yet after three games this season, the Big Green were still searching for their first pick. That all changed with the return of All-America CB Isiah Swann against Yale. But it wasn't Swann — who led Division I last year with nine interceptions — pilfering the ball. Safeties Niko Mermigas and Quinten Arello each snared an errant Yale pass in the first quarter, setting up Dartmouth touchdowns in both instances.

Putting on the Wins
Since the start of the 2014 season, Dartmouth was won 42 games and lost only 12, the best overall record amongst Ivy League teams in that span, two games ahead of Harvard. The Crimson has a one-game edge in conference games (27-10 compared to the Big Green's 26-11), but Dartmouth has won eight or more contests in four of the last five years; no other Ancient Eight squad has accomplished that more than twice.

They Went to Jared
Jared Gerbino led Dartmouth last year with 700 rushing yards, the most by a Big Green QB ever. After two games, he had just 61 yards on the ground, but he gobbled up a team-high 77 in the win at Penn and 59 more versus Yale. He now tops the team with 197 rushing yards, and with 1,325 in his career, he is just 169 behind Dalyn Williams '16 for the most by a Dartmouth QB and 175 shy of becoming the 15th Big Green player with 1,500 in a career.