Football Travels to League-Leading Princeton

Saturday, November 5

Princeton, N.J. / Princeton Stadium

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Princeton

Running back Q Jones

Photo by: Gil Talbot

11/3/2022 12:00:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Nov. 5 ESPN+Audio Broadcast Live Stats Teevens Teleteaser @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth has been the team to hand the Tigers their first loss in each of the last two seasons

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (2-5, 1-3) at #17 Princeton (7-0, 4-0)
Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022 | 1 PM
Princeton Stadium | Princeton, N.J.
ESPN+ — Cody Chrusciel play-by-play, David Giancola analyst, Renee Washington sideline
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Matt Corsetti analyst

Perfect Princeton Up Next
For the fourth straight season, Dartmouth will have the opportunity to provide the blemish on a perfect Princeton record. But unlike the last three meetings, this Big Green team is not in the running for an Ivy League title after its 28-13 loss to Harvard last weekend eliminated the Green from the race for the crown. And the five losses this year match the team's total over the past four seasons combined.

Dartmouth played the Crimson about as even as possible through the first two quarters, trailing by a 14-13 score at the intermission with only a blocked extra point separating the two teams. But Harvard dominated play in the second half, holding the Big Green scoreless while tacking on two touchdowns to snap Dartmouth's personal three-game winning streak against the Crimson.

The promising first half featured some strong runs by QB Nick Howard, including a 13-yard gain on 3rd-and-12 that allowed him to punch in from the 1 for the Big Green's first score and his first touchdown since the Penn game in week three. Even with that scoring drought, Howard is still third in the Ivy League in rushing touchdowns on the season with seven.

But the rushing game never really took off, understandably while going up a defense that was 12th nationally against the run. Dartmouth finished the game with just 85 yards on the ground, the third time this season it has been held under 100 after racking up over 700 yards in the first two games.

The other half of the QB tandem, Dylan Cadwallader, threw for 212 yards on 19-of-32 completions with one interception (thanks to a Hail Mary on the game's final play), his second 200-yard game since starting the Yale game in week four.

For the second straight week, WR Paxton Scott put up solid numbers, hauling in six throws for 77 yards. Since snaring six passes in the first three games combined, he has at least six catches in three of the last four games. But for Dartmouth to topple the Tigers, it will need more production from the passing attack as well as the ground game that features three players with at least 300 yards.

The depleted defense has lost four key starters over the last three weeks, none of whom are expected back soon if at all this season. But fifth-year senior LB Joe Heffernan keeps plugging away, taking down 12 Crimson ball carriers last week, his third game in double digits. DL Shane Cokes will be the focus of the Princeton offensive line with his team-leading 6.5 TFL and 3.5 sacks.

Last year, Dartmouth tamed the nationally ranked and undefeated Tigers on national television by a 31-7 count despite running just 46 plays to Princeton's 80. Derek Kyler threw three touchdown tosses and CB Isaiah Johnson returned a pick-six 73 yards to seal the victory late in the third quarter.

Scouting the Tigers
For the fourth straight season, Princeton enters its game against the Big Green with a perfect 7-0 record. But while the Tigers still put up a good number of points (over 31 per game), their opportunistic defense deserves the most credit for the team's place atop the Ivy League standings.

Princeton has allowed just 11 points and 70 rushing yards a game (both second in the FCS) while forcing 21 turnovers and coughing the ball up just four times — a margin of 2.4 per contest, the best in the nation by nearly a full turnover.

Ten different defenders have at least one interception, led by safety Michael Ruttlen Jr. with three. Defensive lineman Nate Martey leads the team with 4.5 tackles for a loss and 2.5 sacks, and middle linebacker Liam Johnson has collected 58 tackles to lead the Tigers.

Quarterback Blake Stenstrom, a transfer from the University of Colorado, has been a model of consistency, averaging 265 yards a game through the air (throwing between 250-295 yards in all but one game). He has completed 68 percent of his passes and thrown 12 touchdowns against only two interceptions.

NFL prospect Andrei Iosivas is the star of the receiving corps with 50 catches for 778 yards (FCS-best 111.1 per game) and six scores. But don't sleep on Dylan Classi and his 35 grabs for 561 yards and three TDs, giving Princeton a terrific one-two receiving combo.

The ground game is primarily entrusted to Ryan Butler, the league's Rookie of the Week five times to date. He has run for 10 touchdowns among his 87 carries for 401 yards (4.6-yard average), the only player on the squad with even 100 rushing yards, though Stenstrom will take off when an opening presents itself (21 sacks have minimized his total rushing yards).

The Tigers are under the care of the Charles W. Caldwell Jr. '25 Head Coach of Football, Bob Surace, in his 12th year (11th season) with the Tigers and enters today with a record of 72-45 with three conference crowns (2013, '16, '18). An All-Ivy first-team center in 1989 at Princeton, which won a share of the conference crown, Surace is one of only two coaches ever to win Ivy titles as a player and a head coach — the other is Buddy Teevens.

Modest Streaks End Against Harvard
With the 28-13 defeat against Harvard on Oct. 29, Dartmouth saw a pair of streaks come to an end. First, the three-game win streak against the Crimson — the Big Green's longest against them since taking five straight in 1979-83 — was snapped. And the four-game streak in homecoming games also was stopped.

Howard You Doing?
It had been four weeks since QB Nick Howard had found his way to the end zone, the longest drought of his career. But the senior bulled his way in from a yard out against Harvard for his seventh touchdown of the season and 22nd of his career. He is now fifth on Dartmouth's all-time rushing touchdowns list, trailing only Myles Lane '28 (33), Dominick Pierre 2014 (30), and Al Marsters '30 and Nick Schwieger 2012 (26 each).

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 dozen tackles against Harvard after piling up a career-high 13 tackles at Yale. He now leads the Ivy League with 9.1 per game, 64 in all. All while managing his Type-1 diabetes without a hitch.

Arello Development
So "Arello" isn't that close to "arrested" … what are you going to do, arrest me? Senior tri-captain Quentin Arello provided an interesting development in the 28-13 loss to Harvard when he recorded his first interception of the season and third of his career late in the third quarter with the Big Green trailing by just eight points. Arello has had one interception in each of his three seasons on the field, last year's coming against Harvard as well.