Football Plays Final Road Game at Cornell on Saturday

Saturday, November 12

Ithaca, N.Y. / Schoellkopf Field

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Seth Verilus makes the tackle with Quinten Arello ready to assist.

Photo by: Eli Burakian

Football Plays Final Road Game at Cornell on Saturday

11/10/2022 3:35:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Nov. 12 ESPN+Audio Broadcast Live Stats Teevens Teleteaser @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes Cornell Notes

The Big Green battle the Big Red in Ithaca this weekend

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (2-6, 1-4) at Cornell (4-4, 1-4)
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022 | 1 PM
Schoellkopf Stadium | Ithaca, N.Y.
ESPN+ — Barry Leonard play-by-play, Buck Briggs analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Matt Corsetti analyst

Final Road Test at Cornell
With the three-point loss last weekend at the Ivy League leader, Princeton, Dartmouth will suffer just its second record under .500 in the last dozen seasons. But the Big Green are looking to finish the season on a high note with victories in their final two contests, beginning with their last road game of the year at Cornell, a team they have beaten in 11 of the last 12 meetings.

The 17-14 loss at the paws of the Tigers ended Dartmouth's personal four-game winning streak against nationally ranked teams, two of which had come against Princeton. It was also the fourth loss this season that was decided by three points or went into overtime, the most for the team since 2013.

The Big Green offense was without the services of QB and leading rusher Nick Howard, and the running game suffered with only 66 yards on the ground, the fourth time in the last five games the team was held to fewer than 100 yards. But TE Jace Henry filled in for Howard near the goal line and provided the first Dartmouth touchdown of the day with a six-yard keeper.

Dylan Cadwallader provided 144 passing yards on 14-of-20 throws before giving way to Jackson Proctor on the final drive. The sophomore showed off his athleticism and creativity in his first collegiate action, guiding the Green 78 yards in 14 plays over 2:29 — ending on an 8-yard touchdown toss to WR Paxton Scott — to close the gap to three in the final seconds.

Scott finished the game with a team-high five receptions for 34 yards and his second score of the season, while Henry needed just two catches to amass a team-best 51 yards. All told, the 21 completions were caught by 10 different Dartmouth receivers, the most for the team since the overtime win at Yale in 2021. Scott has nearly twice as many catches (32) and receiving yards (384) on the season as any of his teammates.

The defense got off to a rough start, yielding a pair of touchdowns on the first two Princeton possessions (albeit one that began in Dartmouth territory). But the Big Green put the clamps on from that point forward, allowing just three points over the final three quarters to hold the Tigers to their lowest output of the season. LB Joe Heffernan and NB Seth Verilus each posted career highs in tackles with 15 and 11, respectively, and the former also recovered a key fumble in the red zone.

In last year's matchup with the Big Red, Dartmouth jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead and cruised to the 41-7 victory on Senior Day. Howard ran for a season-high 172 yards and four touchdowns on just 13 carries, and Dale Chesson posted his first career 100-yard receiving game by snagging seven passes for 106 yards and a TD. The defense, meanwhile, limited Cornell to 192 total yards. The win avenged the 20-17 defeat in the 2019 season that denied the Big Green a perfect 10-0 season but not a share of the Ivy title.

Scouting the Big Red
Cornell enters this game with an even 4-4 record with all four victories by no more than six points, including its lone Ivy League triumph over Brown, 24-21. Two of their four conference defeats are by a touchdown, those coming against Harvard and, most recently, Penn.

The team stats for the Big Red are eerily similar to Dartmouth's, though they have scored a little more and allowed a few more points. The key to the offense is QB Jameson Wang who has run or thrown for 19 of the team's 23 touchdowns. His 457 yards on the ground top the team, and he has thrown for 1,326 yards while completing 56.6 percent of his passes. Of Wang's seven interceptions, six have come in the last two games.

When Wang isn't the one running the ball, Eddy Tillman (69 carries, 276 yards) or Gannon Carothers (70-179, TD) have taken up the mantle. Tillman, however, missed last week's game and his availability is in question.

Thomas Glover is Wang's top target with his 40 receptions for 445 yards and four scores, all of which lead the Big Red. But the defense can't sleep on Matt Robbert (24-366, 2 TDs) or Nicholas Laboy (19-305, 2 TDs), both of whom average more than 15 yards a catch.

The defense is headed up by All-Ivy linebacker Jake Stebbins with 64 tackles (fourth in the league), 1.5 TFL and two of the team's four fumble recoveries. Lineman Max Lundeen is the top pass rusher with three sacks, and the only player with two interceptions is LB Holt Fletcher, though CB Paul Lewis is tied for the league lead with nine passes defended.

On special teams, PK Jackson Kennedy is 6-of-9 on field goals, including 4-of-6 from 40 or more yards and made all 21 of his PATs. On the flip side, Cornell has blocked five kicks this season (four FGs) with Manny Adebi doing the deed four times. Punter Ayden McCarter averages 34.8 yards per punt but has been blocked five times.

Cornell is led by The Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Football David Archer, a 2005 graduate of the university. The former Big Red captain was the youngest Division I head coach in the country when hired before the 2013 season and has led the team to a 25-63 record in nine seasons at the helm (a loss in this game would invoke a Chicago song).

Loss to a Ranked Team
Over the past few years, Dartmouth had fared well against ranked teams having won four consecutive matchups, including three just last season. While the 17-14 defeat at No. 17 Princeton ended that little streak, the Big Green has gotten the better of the Tigers over the last decade, going 3-2 against them when Princeton was ranked and 7-3 overall in the last 10 meetings.

Another Close Loss
With the 17-14 loss at Princeton, the Big Green have suffered two defeats in the Ivy League by three points and another in overtime. Generally speaking, most of Dartmouth's losses in league play over the last decade have been within one score. Since the start of the 2012 campaign, the Big Green own a record of 46-22 with 16 of those losses by no more than eight points.

Proctor Passes First Test
Trailing 17-7 in the final minutes at Princeton, Dartmouth turned to QB Jackson Proctor for his collegiate debut, and he passed the test with flying colors. The sophomore scrambled for two double-digit, first-down runs and completed 7-of-10 passes for 46 yards, ending with an 8-yard strike to Paxton Scott (now 112 yards shy of 1,000 in his career) in the end zone to cap the 78-yard drive and keep the Green's slim hopes alive until the ensuing onside kick was covered up by the Tigers.

Heffernan Overcomes
Joe Heffernan patiently bided his time on a team known for great linebackers of late, including Bushnell Cup winners Folarin Orimolade (2016) and Jack Traynor (2020). Like all Ivy Leaguers, he also had to bide his time during COVID with the 2020 season wiped out by the pandemic. Yet here he is, an integral starter among the linebackers as a fifth-year senior, amassing a career-high 15 tackles at Princeton for his fourth game in double digits (all in the last five contests). He now leads the Ivy League with 79 total tackles and is second on a per-game basis (9.9). All while managing his Type-1 diabetes without a hitch.

Ball Control
Princeton entered the game on Nov. 5 leading the FCS in turnover margin by a wide margin, averaging nearly 2.5 more takeaways per game than its opponents. But Dartmouth took care of the ball and did not cough it up a single time. But the Big Green still ended up with the short stick in time of possession, having the ball for a little under 24 minutes. Dartmouth, ranked among the bottom 15 nationally in TOP (about 27 minutes), will be looking for a way to reverse that trend this week against a Cornell team that ranks among the top 15 nationally at over 33 minutes per game.

A Jace Up Their Sleeve
It's good to have a staff that enjoys a good pun, and assistant communications director Kyle Relf answered the call with the headline for this note. Without the services of QB Nick Howard at Princeton, the Big Green were in need of a wildcat QB down near the Tiger goal line. So Dartmouth dealt out TE Jace Henry, a converted QB to take the snap. The 6-4, 250-pounder rumbled 6 yards for his second touchdown of the year, and he also added a career-high 51 receiving yards on his two catches in the game.

Verily Verilus
Senior NB Seth Verilus nearly tripled his career best for tackles with 11 stops at No. 17 Princeton on Nov. 5, becoming the sixth Big Green player with at least 10 tackles in a game this year. The others are LB Macklin Ayers (four times), LB Joe Heffernan (4), S Quinten Arello (2), CB Tyron Herring (1) and LB Braden Mullen (1).