Tough Test Awaits No. 14/15 Big Green at Harvard

Saturday, November 2

Cambridge, Mass. / Harvard Stadium

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Zach Sammartino (50) joins in a touchdown celebration with Evan Hecimovich (61) and Drew Estrada (4).

Photo by: Doug Austin

Tough Test Awaits No. 14/15 Big Green at Harvard

10/30/2019 11:55:00 AM | Football

Saturday, November 2, 2019 Harvard Stadium ESPN+Audio Broadcast @DartFootball Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth ended a personal 14-game skid against the Crimson last year

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (6-0, 3-0)
at HARVARD (4-2, 2-1)
Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019 | 1 PM | ESPN+
Harvard Stadium | Cambridge, Mass.

The No. 14/15 Dartmouth Big Green put their perfect 6-0 record on the line this week at Harvard, a team that has won 20 of the last 22 meetings between the two schools. And after suffering a 30-24 loss at Princeton last week, the Crimson are fighting to keep their Ivy League title hopes alive against Dartmouth, which boasts the top-scoring offense and lowest-scored-upon defense in the FCS.

These two teams have the most wins in the conference play since the start of the 2014 season with identical 27-11 records, though the Big Green have won more games overall (44 to 41).

Dartmouth is coming off an explosive 59-24 triumph over Columbia in a nationally televised game on ESPNU last Friday night. Although the Lions became the first team to take a lead against the Green this season with a first-quarter field goal, Dartmouth roared back. With the score tied at 10 in the second quarter, the Big Green tallied six touchdowns in the span of fewer than 14 minutes of game action — not even a full quarter — and finished the game matching its highest scoring output of the last 87 years.

If you're looking for one offensive star from the game, you won't find just one. No player had 90 receiving yards or even 70 rushing yards in the game. Two players had a pair of touchdowns in QB Jared Gerbino and WR Drew Estrada.

Estrada's most notable work came returning punts as he broke a 52-year-old Big Green record with 142 return yards on punts, including an 87-yard touchdown, the second longest punt return in program history. His performance earned him the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week, his second weekly award of the year. Estrada is also the nation's leader in punt return average (23.0), not to mention 13th in yards per reception (21.8).

Hunter Hagdorn had his most productive game of the season with four catches for 89 yards and a TD. Those four receptions moved him into fourth all-time at Dartmouth with 139 for his career, and he sits in seventh in yardage with 1,759.

The Big Green keep opponents guessing as to who will carry the football with three of the top four rushers in the game being quarterbacks. But RB Caylin Parker showed off his powerful running style with 46 yards on just four carries, and freshman Noah Roper scored his first collegiate touchdown.

The defense, although it allowed a season-high 24 points (14 coming after Dartmouth opened up a 52-10 lead), continued to impress. The Lions averaged only three yards per rush, and the Big Green forced three turnovers, including Isiah Swann's first interception of the year that went for a 17-yard TD. With the pick, Swann broke the school record for career interceptions with 14 and tied the mark for career pick-sixes with three.

Swann added nine solo tackles to his ledger, while LBs Nigel Alexander and Jack Traynor — the team's leading tacklers on the season — had 12 and nine, respectively. On the line, Niko Lalos leads the Big Green with 4.5 tackles for a loss and is tied with linemate Jackson Perry with 1.5 sacks on the year.

The Series
• This is the 123rd meeting between the two, the seventh-most played series among FCS teams, with Harvard holding a 71-46-5 advantage
• Buddy Teevens is 3-15-1 against Harvard in his two stints at Dartmouth, ending a 14-game skid last year with the 24-17 win in Hanover.
• In the Ivy League era (since 1956), the Crimson have a 38-23-2 reocrd against the Big Green, plus have won 14 of the last 15 and 20 of the last 22.
• In Cambridge, Dartmouth is 39-54-5.

Scouting the Crimson
While Harvard fell in its season opener at San Diego, 31-23, it had won four straight by double digits before running into No. 13 Princeton last Saturday in a 30-24 defeat. Now to keep the title hopes alive, the Crimson are aiming to avenge its loss to Dartmouth last year with its eighth straight home win over the Big Green.

Quarterback Jake Smith is second in the Ivy League with 15 touchdown tosses, but also second with eight interceptions (with at least one in every game) while throwing for 234 yards per contest. He is primarily a drop-back QB having lost a total of 11 yards on 33 rushes thanks to 16 sacks.

Smith's top targets to throw to are speedster Jack Cook (25 catches, 430 yards, 5 TD) and Cody Chrest (26 for 382, 4 TD). But Smith also will look for RB B.J. Watson and TE Ryan Reagan who have 25 receptions between them.

In the backfield, Devin Darrington has been their workhorse with the second-most rushes (117) and yards (548) in the league with seven touchdowns. Aiden Borguet provides a nice change of pace in Darrington's stead, averaging 5.5 yards per carry with three scores of his own.

The defense is especially difficult to run against, holding opponents to 74.2 yards a game, third fewest in the FCS. But while the Crimson led the nation with five sacks a game, they also have allowed nearly 260 yards through the air, sixth in the league.

Linebacker Cameron Kline has a team-high 30 tackles, but another LB, Truman Jones has league-high 10 tackles for a loss. Three of the top five sack masters in the Ivy League come from Harvard, led by DL Brogan McPartland (5.5) with Jones (5.0) and DL Anthony Nelson (4.5) right behind. All that pressure has led to just two interceptions, however, both courtesy of LB Jack McGowan.

Harvard is coached by Tim Murphy, now in his 26th year in Cambridge and 33rd overall as a collegiate head coach. The boyhood friend of Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens is 178-77 during his Crimson tenure with nine Ivy championships to his credit, and 210-122-1 in a career that included stints at Maine and Cincinnati. Murphy earned All-New England honors at Springfield College for small colleges as a linebacker before graduating in 1978. In 2007, he was inducted into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Last Time Against Harvard
Dartmouth exorcised some demons last year, ending a personal 14-game skid against the Crimson with a 24-17 triumph, which also happened to be the Big Green's first at Memorial Field against Harvard in a quarter century. The first half was all Dartmouth thanks in part to four Crimson fumbles as the hosts took a 21-0 lead at the intermission. Rashaad Cooper set the tone by sprinting 82 yards for a touchdown barely two minutes into the contest, and DeWayne Terry Jr. scooped up one of those lost balls for a 62-yard score. Harvard got on the board midway through the third quarter on an Aaron Shampklin 7-yard run, but Connor Davis knocked a 28-yard field goal through the uprights with 9:34 to play for a 24-7 lead. Although the Crimson made Big Green fans nervous with a pair of TDs to cut their deficit to seven with 1:36 to play, the onside kick went out-of-bounds, and after picking up one first down, Dartmouth was able to run out the clock.

No. 1 Offense, No. 1 Defense
Leading the FCS in both scoring and fewest points allowed is a pretty neat trick if you can pull it off. Dartmouth currently sits atop both lists having scored 41.8 points per game while allowing a mere 10.8. No team in FCS history (which started in 1978) has ever led the nation in both categories, while an FBS team has turned the trick nine times, the latest being Virginia Tech in 1999. The Big Green have finished atop one category or the other three times — offense in 1938 (28.2), defense in 1970 (4.7) and, in FCS times, defense in 2015 (10.1).

First-Half Scoring Barrage
What seemed like a "normal" game with the score tied at 10 against Columbia and less than seven minutes left in the half, turned into a scoring barrage Dartmouth fans have not witnessed by the Big Green in quite some time. First Dartmouth scored four more touchdowns prior to the intermission, giving the Green 38 first-half points, matching their most in either half of play over the past 83 seasons. Dartmouth then scored on each of its first two second-half possessions, giving them 42 points in less than 14 minutes of play. When the game ended with 59 points on the board for the Big Green, that matched their most in a game since 1932 and their most against Columbia ever.

Scoring Early and Often
• Dartmouth has scored at least one touchdown in the first quarter in each of its last 14 games.
• The Big Green have scored 21 or more points in the first half of each of their first six games this year, the longest stretch by any Ivy League team since the league started play in 1956 (as researched by the Elias Sports Bureau).
• Since the start of the 2018 season, the Big Green have scored first in all but two of their 16 contests (both against Columbia). They have trailed for a total of only 19 minutes and 27 seconds in those games and for a mere 3:29 this year.
• The last time Dartmouth was shut out in the opening quarter was against Columbia two years ago.
• The Big Green have outscored the opposition 87-3 in the first quarter this season and 174-20 in the first half.
• The last team to hold the Green without a touchdown was Yale back in 2011, a span of 82 games. The school record for scoring at least one TD is 109 consecutive games from 1961-73 (also the longest streak without being shut out).

Big Green Continue Climb in Polls
After winning its first four games, Dartmouth made its debut at No. 21 in both the AFCA Coaches Poll and STATS FCS Poll. Two weeks later and the Big Green find themselves ranked 14th by the coaches and 15th by STATS. The Big Green aren't the only Ivy League team in the rankings; Princeton is ranked 12th in both polls with a showdown between the two at Yankee Stadium looming on Nov. 9.

Estrada Labeled Special
Well, Drew Estrada was named the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week, which is pretty much being called special. The senior broke a 52-year-old school record with 142 punt return yards in the 59-24 win over Columbia, including an 87-yard run — the second-longest in program history — for a touchdown to put Dartmouth on the board. That was only part of Estrada's night as he did a little bit of everything with three rushes for 16 yards and a TD, two catches for 14 yards and even a 34-yard completion on his first career pass attempt. Estrada's honor gives the Green one of the conference players of the week for a fifth straight week, one shy of the team's longest streak, which came in 2014.

Swann Sets Big Green INT Record
Isiah Swann led Division I last year with nine interceptions, earning consensus All-America honors and leaving him tied for the Dartmouth career record with 13 entering his final campaign. He missed the first three game with an injury, but final got that record-breaking pick in the 59-24 win over Columbia, stepping in front of a Lion pass and returning it 17 yards for a touchdown. That also tied him for the most pick-sixes in a Big Green career, matching LB Will McNamara '16 who had three. In addition, it was the third defensive touchdown for Dartmouth this season, tied for fifth most among FCS teams.

Hagdorn Climbing the Charts
Wide receiver Hunter Hagdorn caught four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown against Columbia, allowing him to climb up the Dartmouth career lists. The senior is now fourth all-time with 139 receptions and seventh with 1,758 receiving yards. Next up on the yardage list is wide receivers coach Dave Shula '81, who had 1,822 in his career as a Big Green receiver. If Hagdorn is to become the sixth player in Big Green history with 2,000 receiving yards, he will need to average just over 60 yards a game; he is at 47.0 per game this season. And for good measure, he is tied for seventh with 13 TD grabs in his four years.

That's a Pal-lot-ta Yards
Late in the 59-24 win over Columbia, reserve QB Jake Pallotta took advantage of a big hole up the middle and took off for a 69-yard rush, the longest by a Big Green player this year. That run boosted Dartmouth's total to 273 on the ground for the game, the most for the team this season.

Quick Hitters
• Dartmouth has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 26 of its last 27 games with the lone exception coming in last year's 24-17 win over Harvard.
• In those 27 games, the Big Green has thrown 52 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions.
• No individual opponent has run for 100 yards versus Dartmouth since Princeton's Charlie Voelker in the 2016 season finale, a span of 26 games.
• The last 300-yard passer against the Green D? Princeton's Chad Kanoff in the 2017 finale.
• WR Drew Estrada leads the FCS with 23.0 yards per punt return, plus ninth in all-purpose yards (143.5) and 13th in yards per reception (21.8).
• In addition to the top offense and defense in the FCS, Dartmouth leads the FCS in converting third downs (60.6 percent), completion percentage (71.4) and passing efficiency (192.69).
• The defense is up there, too, ranking fifth in the FCS in team passing efficiency defense (107.13) while ranking eighth in total defense (298.0 yards).
• Thirteen of the Big Green's 35 touchdowns this year have traveled at least 30 yards with the 87-yard punt return by Drew Estrada being the longest.
• Gerbino has 1,392 yards rushing in his career, which is 19th all-time and second among Dartmouth QBs (Dalyn Williams '16 had 1,494).
• Gerbino is also second all-time at Dartmouth with a rushing average of 5.66 yards per carry.
• Derek Kyler, on the other hand, has the highest career completion percentage in program history (minimum 1,500 yards) at 69.5 percent as well as the best career passing efficiency at 162.94.
• Connor Davis has converted his last 37 PATs, 14 shy of the school record held by 18-year NFL veteran Nick Lowery '78. And his 75 career PATs are just 19 behind Dennis Durkin '93 for the career record. Oh yeah, Davis is only a sophomore.
• Either the offense wants to get off the field quickly at home or the defense likes to show off. Average time of possession for home games is 23:36. For road games that figure is 32:56.

Nearly a First Down Every Play
Prior to the 42-10 win over Yale, Dartmouth had not averaged nine yards per offensive play for a full game in at least 50 years. But with the Big Green racking up 433 yards in just 45 plays, Dartmouth had eclipsed that mark at 9.6. It didn't take long for the Green to top nine yards per play again. Just two weeks later, Dartmouth piled up 473 yards in just 55 plays, an average of 9.3 yards, in the 59-24 win over Columbia.

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 102-92-2 record at Dartmouth, which leaves him just two behind the all-time leader, legendary Bob Blackman, whose name also graces the endowed coaching position inhabited by Teevens. No other Big Green coach has more than 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.

Eight in a Row
Dating back to last season, the Big Green have won eight consecutive games. That is the third-longest win streak in the FCS going, behind only No. 1 North Dakota State (29 in a row) and Ivy League rival Princeton (16). 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.