Overtime Winner! Dartmouth Outlasts Penn, 23-20

Saturday, September 30

Philadelphia, Pa. / Franklin Field

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

2-1 , 1-0

Penn

2-1 , 0-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Dartmouth

Penn

Braden Mullen shows off his fumble recovery that set up Dartmouth's second touchdown.

Photo by: Kyle Relf

Overtime Winner! Dartmouth Outlasts Penn, 23-20

9/30/2023 5:50:00 PM | Football

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Owen Zalc drilled a 37-yard field goal to send the Big Green home with a victory to start Ivy play

By: Rick Bender

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — A year ago, Penn came to Hanover, kicked a field goal as time expired in regulation and defeated Dartmouth in double overtime. The Big Green did not let history repeat itself after the Quakers booted a game-tying, 51-yard field goal in the final minute at Franklin Field this afternoon, thanks to freshman Owen Zalc and his 37-yard field goal in overtime that lifted Dartmouth (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) to a 23-20 victory to start Ivy League play.

Penn (2-1, 0-1 Ivy) got the ball to start overtime, and was forced to settle for a 42-yard field goal attempt after throwing three incomplete passes. But Graham Gotlieb's kick failed to find its target, giving the Green a chance to win the game with just a field goal. Dartmouth took no chances in making a mistake in a game that featured four fumbles and two blocked kicks with quarterback Nick Howard running the ball three straight times to move the ball to the Quaker 20. Zalc trotted on the field, waited out an icing timeout by Penn and calmly kicked the ball true through the goalposts for the Big Green's first overtime victory over the Quakers in four tries.

"I knew our offense was going to give me the best situation possible there," Zalc said during a postgame press conference. "I just do the same thing I do every time, the situation might be different but it's the same kick every time, same snap, same hold. They just put me in a position to do it and I do it."

COUNT IT! Put in the books, 1-0 in the @IvyLeague!#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods🌲 pic.twitter.com/fBRhhBFfak
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) September 30, 2023

Penn entered the fourth quarter trailing, 20-10, and it looked like the Big Green had put the game out of reach with a 74-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jackson Proctor, filling in for the other half of the quarterback tandem, Dylan Cadwallader. A holding penalty downfield cut the run short at 29 yards, however, and Dartmouth eventually had to punt, pinning the Quakers inside their own 1-yard line with a little more than 10 minutes to play.

The precarious position did not faze Penn quarterback Aidan Sayin, who finished the day 36-of-55 throwing the ball for 357 passing yards. A play-action pass across the middle turned into a 52-yard gain, and following a fourth-down and a third-down conversion, Sayin connected with Malone Howley on a 16-yard touchdown toss, closing the gap to three with nearly six minutes remaining.

Dartmouth was able to run two-and-a-half minutes off the clock, but that enough time for Penn to push the ball down to the Big Green 29. But on 3rd-and-1, Sayin pitched the ball to his running back with linebacker Macklin Ayers waiting for him for a 4-yard loss. The Quakers turned to a bigger leg in punter Albert Jang, who supplied plenty of distance to spare on the 51-yard, game-tying field goal, which turned out for naught after Zalc's game-winner.

"We had it pretty locked down all day, but we knew it was going to go all the way to the end and then some," linebacker Braden Mullen said. "We had a couple mental errors in the last couple drives, so still a lot of room for improvement at the end of games. Our goal is to keep them scoreless in the fourth quarter, so we have things we still need to work on."

The first half was a wild affair as big plays on special teams provided scoring opportunities for both teams early. After Penn failed to get a first down on the game's opening drive, Niko Schwikal broke through the line, blocked the punt and recovered it at the 1. Howard took the honors in carrying the ball over the threshold for a 7-0 lead barely one minute into the contest.

When Derrell Porter forced a fumble and Sean Williams recovered it at the Penn 20, Dartmouth had a golden opportunity to extend its lead. But Quaker Christian De Villiers blocked Zalc's 32-yard field goal attempt and his teammate, Jonathan Melvin, scooped up the loose ball, returning it to midfield. Penn was able to advance inside the Big Green 5 before settling for a 21-yard Gotlieb field goal.

The Big Green got those three points back early in the second quarter when Zalc drilled a 28-yarder. But the Quakers pulled even when Sayin faked a keeper to suck in the defense and connected on a short pass with Malachi Hosely, who sprinted the rest of the 52 yards to the end zone.

Just a thing of beauty! @nchoward17 to @ChrisCorbo3!

Watch the game on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/JjlFPHs0q7 #GoBigGreen | #TheWoods 🌲 pic.twitter.com/ICo7eYm8EY
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) September 30, 2023

Two more Penn miscues would play a big role late in the half. Sayin fumbled the snap on a third-down play and linebacker Braden Mullen — who also had a pair of sacks on the day — came up with the ball at the Quaker 36. Seven plays later, Howard dropped a perfect pass in the corner of the end zone to tight end Chris Corbo from 14 yards out, giving the Green the 17-10 lead with 44 seconds still showing.

Defensive end Joe Onuwabhagbe forced another Penn turnover with 31 seconds before the intermission, stripping Sayin in the backfield for his first career sack and recovering the fumble at the Quaker 20. Zalc booted a 26-yard field goal as time expired for the 20-10 lead at the break.

Although Penn outgained the Big Green by 143 yards (394-251), the Dartmouth defense completely shut down the running game, yielding a mere 11 yards on 21 carries with the help of three sacks. Cornerback Leonard St. Gourdin had a game-high nine tackles for the Green, which as a team recorded 10 tackles for a loss totaling 38 yards.

"We knew it was going to be a battle, knew that there would be some bad plays on our side, but we just had to forget about it, correct it and move on," said interim head coach Sammy McCorkle. "I thought our guys did a very good job of doing just that. This was a typical Dartmouth-Penn game, always down to the wire, overtime classics. I thought all three phases of our game — offense, defense and special teams — came up with big plays when we needed them, and that was the difference for us.

Howard provided 132 yards of total offense, grinding out 58 yards on 19 carries and completing 9-of-18 passes for 74 more.

Bryce Myers was Penn's leading receiver with 103 yards on eight catches.

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 through the Dartmouth ticket office website or (603) 646-2466.

Notes: This is just the third game in the last 19 years in which Dartmouth converted three field goals … the Big Green recovered three fumbles in a game for the first time in five years … Dartmouth has defeated Penn in five of the last six meetings and is now 39-49-2 all-time against the Quakers.