The freshman takes home the award for the second straight week after kicking the game-winning field goal in overtime
By: Rick Bender
HANOVER, N.H. — The Ivy League office announced its weekly football awards this afternoon, and Dartmouth's Owen Zalc was selected as the Rookie of the Week for the second straight week. He is the first Big Green player to earn any weekly honor in consecutive weeks from the conference in five years and the first to do so with the rookie award in 15 years.
A 5-10, 160-pound place kicker from Cary, North Carolina, Zalc became just the third Dartmouth kicker to convert three field goals in a game over the past 19 years. The third of those field goals came from 37 yards out (his longest of the young season) and ended the game at Penn in overtime, lifting the Big Green to a 23-20 road victory in their Ivy League opener. He also split the uprights from 28 and 26 yards out in the second quarter, helping Dartmouth open up a 10-point lead at the intermission. Zalc finished the game with 11 of the team's 23 points, plus drilled the ball into the end zone for touchbacks on each of his four kickoffs in the game.
Receiving mention on the honor roll were junior linebacker Braden Mullen (four tackles, two sacks and a fumble recovery) and sophomore linebacker Niko Schwikal (blocked punt and recovery at the Quaker 1-yard line less than a minute into the game).
Dartmouth returns home next Saturday to play host to the preseason Ivy League favorite and defending champion, Yale (1-2, 0-1) at Memorial Field with kickoff set for 1:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Matt Corsetti and Steve Goldberg behind the mics, while a free audio broadcast featuring Brett Franklin and Wayne Young '72 on the call will be available through the official site of Dartmouth Athletics, DartmouthSports.com. Tickets are available for the breast cancer awareness game through the Dartmouth ticket office or (603) 646-2466.
Notes: Isiah Swann '20 was the last Big Green player to earn a weekly award in consecutive weeks (defensive player) on Sept. 17 and 24, 2018 … the last one to win the rookie honor in back-to-back weeks was return man Shawn Abuhoff '12 following the final two games of the 2008 campaign … Abuhoff is also the only Dartmouth player to be the Rookie of the Week three times in one season.