Football Falls Short in 17-9 Loss at Harvard

Saturday, October 28

Cambridge, Mass. / Harvard Stadium

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-4 , 2-2

Harvard

6-1 , 3-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Dartmouth

Harvard

Sean Williams picked off a pair of passes in the first half.

Photo by: Gil Talbot

10/28/2023 8:17:00 PM | Football

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Highlights

The defense smothered the air attack, but the Crimson ran the ball effectively in the second half

By: Rick Bender

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — With first place in the Ivy League on the line, Dartmouth could not spoil Harvard's homecoming with 22,515 fans in the seats as the 23rd-ranked Crimson (6-1, 3-1 Ivy) held off the Big Green (3-4, 2-2 Ivy) in a defensive struggle, 17-9. Shane McLaughlin provided more than half of Harvard's total offense with 156 rushing yards to help Crimson head coach Tim Murphy win his 136th Ivy victory, breaking the conference record.

The Big Green defense completely stymied the Harvard air attack, limiting the host to a mere 29 passing yards, the fewest for a Dartmouth opponent in 36 years. But the Crimson found their groove on the ground in the second half, racking up 196 rushing yards after halftime. Harvard finished the day with 235 yards on the ground against a Big Green team that was fourth in the FCS against the run (84.2 yards per game) entering the contest.

Dartmouth ended up with more total yards, 325-264, 242 of which came via the pass. Dylan Cadwallader completed 24-of-37 throws for 186 yards, but also suffered a costly interception in the fourth quarter. Harvard was able to convert that turnover into a drive that ate up over six minutes of clock and ended with a 22-yard field goal to give the Crimson a two-score advantage at 17-6 with 3:26 remaining.

Even with no timeouts, the Big Green would not yield. Cadwallader drove the offense down to the Harvard 2-yard line and tossed a touchdown pass to Jackson Gerard only to have the play negated by an offensive pass interference call. With just 21 seconds on the clock, Dartmouth's Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Sammy McCorkle decided to take the three points, which rookie Owen Zalc provided with a low, line-drive kick that found its way through the uprights from 35 yards out.

The Big Green still needed to recover the onside kick to even get a shot at a likely Hail Mary pass — evoking memories of Dartmouth's victory here just four years ago — not to mention a two-point conversion. Those plans never came to fruition, even with a little slight of foot with Zalc serving as a decoy and Ivan Hoyt dribbling the kick as desired, yet Harvard was able to cover up the ball and secure the win.

"We fought all the way to the end, but we have to put some points on the board and can't simply settle for field goals," said McCorkle. Defensively I thought we did a great job except for a couple drives in the second half when they were able to run the ball against us. It kind of deflated us a bit. But we still had a heck of a stand to limit them to a field goal, and the offense gave us a chance at the end with that drive. We simply ended up on the short of it today."

That's INT no. 2⃣ for @SeanWilliams_22 on the day!

Watch this game on @ESPNPlus here: https://t.co/T7s9ptIOjd #TheWoods 🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/pj02IvKtJ6
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) October 28, 2023

In the first half, Dartmouth mostly dominated play with its offense holding the ball for nearly 18 minutes and outgaining the Crimson, 171-57. Yet it was Harvard who held a 7-3 lead at the intermission thanks to a fumble recovery on a sack of Cadwallader at the Big Green 14, just three plays after safety Sean Williams recorded his first of two interceptions on the afternoon. Three plays later, backup quarterback Jaden Craig carried the ball over the threshold from 4 yards out for a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

Zalc put Dartmouth on the board just before the end of the opening quarter, drilling a 37-yard field goal. Neither team could advance past its opponent's 40-yard line in the second quarter until the Big Green ran their two-minute drill, weaving their way from their own 24 to the Crimson 30. But a second sack of Cadwallader — equaling the number of sacks allowed by Dartmouth all season — pushed the ball back to the 35. With mere seconds remaining in the half, Zalc was summoned to attempt a 52-yard field goal, and though his kick may have had the distance, it veered wide left, leaving the Green trailing by four points at the intermission.

In the third quarter, Zalc trimmed the deficit to one with a 47-yard field goal, matching a personal best he recorded twice last week. But Harvard responded with an 11-play, 75-yard drive that featured two completions by Craig for 13 yards with the rest coming on the ground. The last play was a 3-yard touchdown by Craig, opening up an eight-point lead for the Crimson at 14-6.

After both teams had a stalled drive, Cadwallader completed three consecutive passes to push into Harvard territory, only for his next throw to sail high and into the outstretched hands of safety Phillip Smitherman. That set up a six-plus-minute drive and the short field goal by Cali Canaval.

And that's sack no. 3⃣ for @marques_white1 on the day!

Watch this game on @ESPNPlus here: https://t.co/T7s9ptIOjd #TheWoods 🌲 | #GoBigGreen pic.twitter.com/6txCp7fKKL
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) October 28, 2023

Paxton Scott led the Big Green receivers with seven catches for 72 yards while Daniel Haughton added six more grabs for 50 yards. Q Jones led the ground game with 50 of the team's 83 yards, while quarterback Nick Howard (Dartmouth's ninth-leading all-time rusher) was limited to 24 yards on nine carries.

Nose tackle Josiah Green supplied a career-high 10 tackles to lead the defense, and fifth-year linebacker Marques White — making his first appearance after suffering an injury during preseason — had three of the Big Green's four sacks, all coming on third-down plays.

Ty Bartrum led all players with 13 tackles for Harvard, and Gavin Shipman added 10 more stops.

Dartmouth returns to Hanover to host Princeton (4-3, 3-1 Ivy) at Memorial Field on Friday at 7 p.m., needing a victory to keep their title hopes alive. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU, and a free audio broadcast featuring Brett Franklin and Wayne Young '72 also will be available through the official site of Dartmouth Athletics, DartmouthSports.com. To purchase tickets, visit the Dartmouth Ticket Office website or call at 603-646-2466.

Notes: Zalc's three field goals tied a personal best he set four weeks ago in an overtime win at Penn … it was the third time in the last eight games dating back to last year that Dartmouth had three field goals in a game, with the last time before this stretch coming in 2011 … Harvard had 18 first downs in the game, all coming via the rush, marking just the second time since 1969 that a Big Green opponent did not have at least one first down come through the air (Penn did not complete a pass in the 1987 contest) … Davis Golick tied a career high with a 50-yard punt at the start of the fourth quarter to push the Crimson back to their 18 … Williams is the first Big Green defender with two picks in a game in four years (Jack Traynor at Marist in 2019) … White's three sacks were one shy of the program record … the crowd of 22,515 was the largest that Dartmouth had played in front of in 16 years (24,237 at Yale in 2007).