Home Opener Brings Lehigh to Hanover for First Time in 24 Years

Saturday, September 23

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Lehigh

Tickets

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Home Opener Brings Lehigh to Hanover for First Time in 24 Years

9/21/2023 4:00:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Sept. 23 Tickets Game Program ESPN+ Broadcast International Stream Audio Broadcast Live Stats @DartmouthFTBL Series History Dartmouth Notes Lehigh Notes

The Big Green will be playing with heavy hearts following the passing of Buddy Teevens

By: Rick Bender

Dartmouth (0-1) vs. Lehigh (1-2)
Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023 | 1:30 PM
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.
ESPN+ — Matt Corsetti play-by-play, Steve Goldberg analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst

Somber Home Opener
The Dartmouth Big Green will be playing with heavy hearts in their home opener against Lehigh following the passing of Buddy Teevens (see box below). The players and staff would like nothing more than to pick up their first win of the young 2023 campaign in his honor.

Last week, Dartmouth suffered a 24-7 defeat in its season opener in the Granite Bowl at 11th-ranked New Hampshire, snapping an FCS-best 12-game win streak on opening day. The defense played quite well, holding the Wildcat offense to 274 yards. But on four occasions, UNH started in Big Green territory thanks to a trio of turnovers and a punt from inside the 10. Still, the Dartmouth defense kept the Wildcats off the board completely on two of those four possessions.

Linebackers Braden Mullen and Macklin Ayers led the stout defensive effort with 10 and nine tackles, respectively, with each collecting a sack (the first for the latter's career). Mullen also had another tackle for a loss, and Ayers broke up a pair of passes, helping the secondary limit UNH to a paltry 67 yards through the air. The last team with so few passing yards was Columbia 10 years ago next month (64).

It all started with the defensive line as Charles Looes, Josiah Green and Hank Knez consistently applied pressure to Wildcat quarterback Max Brosmer, who completed just 11 of his 23 throws.

Interim head coach Sammy McCorkle will be looking for his defensive unit to be a bit more opportunistic this week, however, as it was unable to force a single turnover.

COACH BT
Dartmouth lost its winningest coach in program history with the passing of Buddy Teevens '79 on Sept. 19 from injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident in March. The Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach guided the team for 22 seasons over two stints, including the last 17 campaigns, winning five Ivy League titles along the way. He was named the New England Coach of the Year three times (1990, 2015, 2019) and the Ivy League Coach of the Year twice (2015, '19) while racking up 117 victories, 83 in conference play. Also on the Big Green's collective minds is Joshua Balara '24, an offensive lineman who passed away last spring following a battle with a lengthy illness. Both will be honored by the team throughout the season with stickers featuring their initials on the Dartmouth helmet.

COACH BT

Dartmouth lost its winningest coach in program history with the passing of Buddy Teevens '79 on Sept. 19 from injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident in March. The Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach guided the team for 22 seasons over two stints, including the last 17 campaigns, winning five Ivy League titles along the way. He was named the New England Coach of the Year three times (1990, 2015, 2019) and the Ivy League Coach of the Year twice (2015, '19) while racking up 117 victories, 83 in conference play. Also on the Big Green's collective minds is Joshua Balara '24, an offensive lineman who passed away last spring following a battle with a lengthy illness. Both will be honored by the team throughout the season with stickers featuring their initials on the Dartmouth helmet.

The offense fared better than its opponent in the yardage department, amassing 323 yards (128 on the ground, 195 through the air). The star for the Big Green was wide receiver Paxton Scott who set personal highs in receptions (10) and yards (153) while also surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for his career. It was his 69-yard catch and sprint late in the third quarter that set up Dartmouth's lone touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, closing the gap to a mere three points at 10-7.

While Dylan Cadwallader completed 16-of-30 throws for those 195 yards, his tandem partner, Nick Howard, ran the ball 10 times for 62 yards. Howard was unable to complete any of his five passes, though, and each QB threw a pick into the stiff wind.

Q Jones carried most of the rest of the load in the backfield, matching Howard with 62 yards on 14 carries. Those numbers would have been gaudier, but a pair of holding penalties on long runs cost the junior a total of 31 yards as well as a touchdown.

Special teams had a couple of hiccups on the night, the first when a 44-yard field goal attempt with the wind was blocked on the Green's first possession. And a squib kick to start the second half was mishandled, allowing the Wildcats to recover the ball in Dartmouth territory. Thankfully neither miscue led to any UNH points as Dartmouth demonstrated its resiliency.

The Series Mountain Hawks Lead 5-2
Year	Site	Dart	Lehigh	W/L
1950	Lehigh	14	16	L
1988	Dartmouth	16	41	L
1990	Dartmouth	33	14	W
1991	Lehigh	28	30	L
1996	Lehigh	21	14	W
1997	Dartmouth	26	46	L
1999	Dartmouth	14	30	L
• It has been nearly 24 years since these two teams last squared off, a 30-14 Lehigh victory here at Memorial Field on Oct. 9, 1999.
• Big Green fans with a long memory will remember that in 1997 the Mountain Hawks snapped Dartmouth's 22-game unbeaten streak, tied for the longest in team history.
• The last win in the series for the Green was a 21-14 triumph on Sept. 28, 1996, during the team's only 10-0 campaign.
• Dartmouth is 1-3 at home against Lehigh with a 33-14 victory on Sept. 22, 1990, almost exactly 23 years ago to the day.
• The Big Green are dead even against current Patriot League teams all-time at 66-66-5.

Scouting the Mountain Hawks
Coming off a 2-9 campaign, Lehigh suffered a 28-point loss to Villanova to open the season but has split two nail-biters since, knocking off Merrimack on the road, 14-12, before coming up three points short against Cornell, 23-20.

Heading up an offense that ranks 96th out of 122 teams in yardage is quarterback Brayten Silbor. A sophomore from Arizona, the 6-3, 220-pound QB has completed at least 20 passes in each of the three games, connecting on 53.3 percent of his throws for 658 yards and four touchdowns, but also five interceptions.

The running game has struggled to the tune of 64.7 yards per game, which ranks among the bottom 10 FCS teams. Gaige Garcia is the featured back having carried the ball 26 times for 107 yards (4.1 average), but it is rookie Luke Yoder who has one of the two rushing touchdowns (as the leading rusher for the team against Cornell — 37 yards on seven carries) with the other going to Silbor.

The two main targets for Silbor to throw to are Geoffrey Jamiel (15 catches, 127 yards, 1 TD) and Connor Kennedy (12 for 121, 2 TDs). But watch out for 6-4 freshman Mason Humphrey who led the way last week with six grabs for 66 yards.

The defense has been solid particularly against the pass and in third-down situations, holding opponents to a less than 30-percent success rate. Linebacker Mike DeNucci has been terrific with 26 tackles, three for a loss, with one sack and a pair of pass breakups. Five other players have one sack as well, so the pressure can come from anywhere. The lone interception for the team is owned by defensive back Donovan Lassiter.

Punter Ben Banks-Altekruse has been busy, averaging 41.7 yards on over eight punts per game. Lehigh has attempted just one field goal, drilling a 38-yarder.

Keep an eye out for the green wristbands being worn by the Mountain Hawk players as their tribute to Buddy Teevens.

Head coach Kevin Cahill (Springfield 2001) is in his first season guiding the Mountain Hawks and is quite familiar with the Big Green following four seasons as the Yale associate head coach and offensive coordinator, and 11 years on the staff overall. The native of New York Mills, New York, has also coached at Maine, Murray State, UT-Martin (shortly after Coach McCorkle was there), his alma mater and Maine Maritime Academy. A two-sport athlete in college, Cahill was a two-time ECAC Division III New England Player of the Year.

100th Anniversary of Memorial Field
Memorial Field first opened for the 1923 season, making this the 100th anniversary of the home facility of Dartmouth football. The Big Green has played a total of 425 games on the field with the team sporting a 273-144-8 record (.652 winning percentage). In the first 17 years of the facility, Dartmouth won 71 of the 78 games on its home field with one tie (.917), including a program-record 21-game home winning streak from 1929-33. That mark was threatened in 1968-72 with 17 straight triumphs in Hanover. More recently, the Green enjoyed a 10-game win streak during 2017-19.

Opening Day Win Streak Snapped
Dartmouth entered the 2023 season with the longest active win streak on opening day, emerging victorious in each of the season openers of the previous 12 campaigns. Of those 12 victories, only two were decided by single digits — 30-23 over Butler in 2013 and 22-21 over this year's opening opponent, New Hampshire. But 13 was not lucky for the Big Green as the 11th-ranked Wildcats handed Dartmouth a 24-7 defeat.

Great Scott!
There is something about Wildcat Stadium that brings out the best in Paxton Scott. Two years ago, the senior wide receiver caught four passes for a season-high 92 yards, including a catch-and-run 52-yard touchdown. In his return trip for opening day, Scott outdid himself with career highs of 10 catches and 153 yards, the most yards for a Dartmouth receiver since the final game of the 2019 campaign. Among his catches was another long catch-and-spring, this time covering a career-long 69 yards to set up the lone Big Green touchdown against 11th-ranked New Hampshire. On top of all that, he became the 24th player in Dartmouth history to collect 1,000 receiving yards (now at 1,049). With 10 more catches, he will become the 15th player to amass 100 in a Big Green career. No surprise that he was chosen as the DartmouthSports.com Male Athlete of the Week.

Macklin with the Smacklin
Agreed, that note headline is pretty lame. You come up with something better for senior linebacker Macklin Ayers for recording his first career sack at No. 11 New Hampshire while making a total of nine tackles and breaking up a pair of passes. Last year's Ivy League leader in tackles per game (10.0) is picking up right where he left off.

Mullen It Over
That is slightly better, don't you think? Junior LB Braden Mullen also registered a sack against the 11th-ranked Wildcats, plus led the team with 10 stops and added another tackle for a loss to his ledger. Those 10 tackles matched his career high set last year against Columbia. And to tie these last three notes together, Scott, Ayers and Mullen were all Academic All-District I selections last season.

Rookie Debut
Dartmouth has 27 freshmen on its roster this season, but only one saw action in the opener at No. 11 New Hampshire. Place kicker Owen Zalc handled all place-kicking duties for the Big Green, converting his only PAT attempt, kicking off twice and attempting a 44-yard field goal (that was unfortunately blocked).

Mistakes Prove Costly at UNH
When playing a nationally ranked team, miscues on the field are difficult to overcome, something Dartmouth discovered the hard way. The Big Green committed three turnovers without getting one of their own, and those three giveaways turned into 10 Wildcat points. Dartmouth also had a pair of long runs called back — one which ended in the end zone — due to holding penalties. The Big Green had not coughed up the ball three times in any game since the 27-10 win over Princeton at Yankee Stadium in 2019, a span of 22 games.