Defending Ivy Champ Comes to Memorial Field Saturday

Saturday, October 7

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Tickets

Football team lined up before game at Penn, Sept. 30, 2023

Photo by: Kyle Relf

Defending Ivy Champ Comes to Memorial Field Saturday

10/5/2023 12:15:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Oct. 7 Tickets Game Program NESN ESPN+ Broadcast International Stream Audio Broadcast Live Stats @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes

Dartmouth has won eight of the last 10 against Yale but is looking to avenge last year’s three-point loss

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (2-1, 1-0) vs. Yale (1-2, 0-1)
Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 | 1:30 PM
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.
NESN / ESPN+ — Matt Corsetti play-by-play, Steve Goldberg analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst

Defending Champs in Town
Dartmouth has a big test this week with last year's champion invading Memorial Field, and Yale is already fighting for its title hopes after suffering a shocking 23-21 defeat two weeks ago at home to Cornell. But considering the first conference game for every Ancient Eight team was decided by no more than three points, perhaps no win or loss should be shocking this year.

Last year, the Bulldogs were able to hold off the Big Green in New Haven, 24-21, after Dartmouth scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. The loss snapped a Big Green four-game win streak in the series, but each of the last five meetings here have gone in favor of Dartmouth.

Yale did not have to contend with Nick Howard last year, who missed the game while nursing an injury. While the quarterback isn't putting up gaudy numbers this year, he has found a way to help the Green win each of the last two weeks, including against a strong Penn defensive unit last week with a 23-20 overtime victory. This year, Howard leads the team with 190 rushing yards and three scores, and he also tossed his first scoring strike of the season against the Quakers.

The status of his tandem partner behind center, Dylan Cadwallader, is uncertain after he left the game last week early with an injury. But should he be unable to go, Jackson Proctor has proven capable of stepping up, completing 7-of-9 throws against Penn for a modest 41 yards, not to mention running for 30 yards on only two carries.

Dartmouth will be looking to get RB Q Jones going again after he was held to only 12 yards on nine rushes at Penn. D.J. Crowther may also get some touches after getting a handful of carries for 22 yards.

Aside from Paxton Scott's 153 yards in the opener, the Big Green have not had anyone amass more than 45 yards receiving yards this year. But a dozen players have caught at least one pass, which keeps opposing defenses guessing where the ball is going.

The defense has been the driving force for this team. Three times in the game, Dartmouth recovered fumbles in Penn territory, the last two by Braden Mullen and Joe Onuwabhagbe late in the second quarter that Dartmouth turned into 10 quick points for a 20-10 lead at the half. Mullen finished the game with a pair of sacks, and Onuwabhagbe recorded his first career sack on the fumble he recovered as well.

Special teams played a huge role in the victory as well. Freshman place kicker Owen Zalc was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the second straight week as he booted three field goals, including the game-winner from 37 yards out in overtime. Linebacker Nico Schwikal set the tone for the game by blocking a punt on the game's first possession and recovering it at the Quaker 1, setting up the first Big Green touchdown. And punter Davis Golick averaged over 39 yards on his career-high eight punts, one of which pinned Penn inside its own 1-yard line.

Scouting the Bulldogs
Yale is the defending conference champion and preseason favorite to take home the crown this fall, but the Bulldogs dropped their first two games — one to top-10 Holy Cross, the other to Cornell — before earning their first win last week in a 45-3 blowout of Morgan State.

Running the offense is the reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week in dual-threat QB Nolan Grooms. The senior is completing more than 65 percent of his passes and averaging just over 200 yards a game through the air with seven touchdowns and just one interception. On top of that, he leads the team in rushing with 77 yards a game on 36 total carries.

Tre Peterson primarily shares the running duties with Grooms, picking up nearly 5 yards on his 33 carries with a pair of touchdowns, not to mention another score he caught last week. Last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year, Joshua Pitsenberger, has missed the last two games after picking up 36 yards on nine rushes in the opener.

The receiving corps is led by Mason Tipton with his 15 catches for 248 yards and half of the squad's eight touchdowns. For short yardage situations, watch out for Ryan Lindley, who also has hauled in four throws but with fewer than half of Tipton's yardage (117, 7.8 per catch).

The defense has steadily improved, coinciding with the difficulty of each opponent. Linebacker Joseph Vaughn has been the star with a team-high 25 tackles, three for a loss and one sack, not to mention a forced fumble and an interception. The leading pass rusher is DL Clay Patterson with three sacks and five TFL, while Wande Owens is the Bulldogs' best cover man with a pair of pass breakups and 19 tackles.

Jack Bosman has been solid as the team's punter, averaging 40.3 yards on 10 boots. But he has struggles as the place kicker, converting just 2-of-5 field goals, neither longer than 29 yards, while having one blocked.

Now in his 12th year as the Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of Football, Tony Reno enters today's game with a 61-42 record with the Bulldogs, including conference titles in 2017, 2019 and '22. He is a 1997 graduate of Worcester State College and was hired at Yale as an assistant in 2003 after a successful five-year stint at his alma mater.

Moment of Silence
Prior to kickoff on Saturday, a moment of silence will be observed at Memorial Field in honor of Josh Balara '24. An offensive lineman for the Big Green, Balara passed away this past March after a battle with a lengthy illness. While he never got a chance to play in a game for Dartmouth before his death, his commitment and unselfish dedication to helping the team improve made him a model teammate, and his affable nature and sense of humor made him a friend to all.

Great Start to Ivy Play
For the 10th time since overtime play was adopted by the NCAA, Dartmouth finished regulation in an Ivy League game tied with its opponent, and for the fourth time, that opponent was Penn. Although the Quakers had won each of the three previous overtime games, the Big Green finally got the better of them this time around with a 23-20 triumph. That makes Dartmouth 5-5 all-time in league overtime contests and 7-8 overall. And the Big Green are now 31-35 in Ivy openers — 25-28 against Penn and 6-7 versus Princeton.

Ivy Rookie of the Week Part Deux
A week after Owen Zalc was recognized by the Ivy League for his performance against Lehigh as the conference Rookie of the Week, the freshman earned the honor for a second straight week, helping Dartmouth defeat Penn in overtime, 23-20. Not only did he split the uprights in the extra period to lift the Green to the win, he also had two other field goals in the contest to go with a pair of PATs for a season-high 11 points. He is just the third Dartmouth kicker in the last 19 years to get a hat trick of field goals. The last Big Green back-to-back winner of any Ivy League weekly award was Isiah Swann '20 for his defensive work in 2018. But the last to collect the rookie weekly honor twice in a row was return man Shawn Abuhoff '12 in 2009.

Finding a Way to Win
Normally when Dartmouth musters no more than 251 yards of offense (as it did at Penn), the end result hasn't been terribly kind to the Big Green. Since 1969, the team has posted a record of 29-84-2 (.261 winning percentage) when being held to that total yards or fewer. And until the 23-20 overtime win against the Quakers, Dartmouth had lost 22 straight such games, with the last victory coming in Buddy Teevens' first game back as the head coach in his second stint — a 26-21 triumph over Colgate to open the 2005 season (193 yards). Only two of those 22 losses, however, have come in the past 10 years.

Top-12 Defense
The Dartmouth defense has been terrific this season, ranking 12th among FCS schools in yards allowed per game (278.3). Against the run, the Big Green rank 10th (90.0), and they are allowing opponents to convert third downs just 28.9 percent of the time, the third lowest figure in the nation. And the defensive unit is no slouch against the pass either with the 16th-best pass efficiency defense.

Schwikal Schwats
It didn't take long for Dartmouth to assert itself at Penn as the defense held the Quakers without a first down on the opening possession before Nico Schwikal promptly blocked the ensuing punt. But the sophomore wasn't finished, pouncing on the ball at the Penn 1. That set up Nick Howard to carry it over the threshold on the first offensive play for a quick 7-0 lead. It gave the Big Green punt rejections in consecutive games; Sam Koscho had a blocked punt against Lehigh on Sept. 23.

Fumblerama
Dartmouth recovered three fumbles in the 23-20 overtime win at Penn on Sept. 30, its first game with at least three recoveries in five years. DL Derrell Porter forced the first one with S Sean Williams corralling it, LB Braden Mullen (who also had two sacks) pounced on an unforced fumble that set up a Big Green TD, and DL Joe Onuwabhagbe forced and recovered the third one on his first career sack. Coming up with that many fumble recoveries is also a pretty good barometer of success. The Big Green are 31-12-1 (.716) when scooping up at least three fumbles in a game.

Two Touchdowns for Howard
When Nick Howard reaches the end zone in a game, it's a pretty safe bet he will find his way there a second time before the final horn sounds. The fifth-year QB is currently third in program history with 27 rushing touchdowns, and 11 times he has had at least two in a game, most recently against Lehigh. As a matter of fact, when he scored just once at Penn on Sept. 30, it was just the second time he had just one touchdown in a game. Only legendary Myles Lane '28 has had more multi-TD games (14) at Dartmouth.