THE DRIVE Caps A Big Weekend
HANOVER (Oct. 6 BGA) – You are going to have to watch an awful lot of football before you see a more satisfying drive that ends up with a running back being stuffed on fourth-and-one at the goal line.
Clinging to a three-point lead Saturday after a Penn field goal with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter of the Ivy League opener, Dartmouth strung together a march for the ages. In an absolute master class of keep away, the Big Green converted no fewer than five third downs while holding the ball for a whopping 20 plays. When the visitors were finally able to get a stop it was on the one-yard line with 11 seconds and no timeouts remaining.
Two harmless snaps later Dartmouth had a dramatic 20-17 win in the first game at the newly named Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field.
To listen to senior quarterback Jackson Proctor, who completed all six of his throws on the winning drive, the way the Big Green finished the game shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
“That’s who we are,” he said almost matter-of-factly of the 10-minute, 30-second march. “That’s what we’ve been doing for years and years.”
With the win Dartmouth improves to 3-0 on the young season, but more importantly, 1-0 in the Ivy League. The Quakers fall to 1-2 and 0-1 in the conference.
For head coach Sammy McCorkle, winning the way the Big Green did one day after the stadium was dedicated in honor of the man who brought him to Hanover in 2005, was special.
“We wanted to make sure that we went out there and we represented Dartmouth the way that Buddy Teevens would want us to represent it,” he said. “Our players, they did that. Our coaching staff and our players.
“I thought, ‘That's Dartmouth football.’ That's what we did out there today.”
Particularly in the second half after an up-and-down opening 30 minutes.
The Big Green got the jump on Penn when Proctor (24-for-31 for 232 yards and two touchdowns) hit tight end Chris Corbo with a 10-yard scoring pass to take a 7-0 lead with 1:35 left in the opening quarter.
After the Quakers’ Malachi Hosley knotted the score on a two-yard run midway through the second quarter Dartmouth regained the lead on Owen Zalc’s 42-yard field goal.
But Penn would take a 14-10 lead into the locker room thanks to Hosley’s one-yard run with 1:55 left in a half that saw Dartmouth unable to hold on to a couple of sure interceptions, commit six costly penalties and lose a fumble. But they never lost their way.
“I thought we did a good job of staying on the script,” McCorkle said. “I challenged the guys at halftime, man. ‘Let's finish. Let's finish each play and let's come out and let's finish this game.’ ”
Which is exactly what they did, starting with the opening drive of the third quarter. Taking over at its own 25, the Big Green marched 75 yards in nine plays, converting all three of its third downs, the last a 12-yard touchdown pass caught by Paxton Scott, who slipped a final tackler to give Dartmouth a 17-14 lead.
When the Big Green defense allowed the Quakers to gain just three yards on their first drive of the third quarter the die was cast for the rest of the game. Thanks to Dartmouth’s ball-control offense, Penn would not touch the ball again until the fourth quarter, and by that time the Big Green had added a 39-yard Zalc field goal for a 20-14 lead.
“Our offense coming out on that first drive to start the second half, we were sending a message,” said McCorkle. “And our defense did a great job responding from there and shutting them down.”
In the fourth quarter – like the third – Penn had just one full possession and this time the Quakers made it count. Although they hurt themselves with a couple of big penalties, they eventually made it to the Dartmouth 26 where kicker Sam Smith booted a 43-yard field goal to make it a three-point game.
With a strong breeze at their backs, the Quakers were in position to tie the game with a hold and just a modest drive if quarterback Aidan Sayin, held to an uncharacteristic 11-for-27 for 123 yards by the Big Green defense, could finally get going.
He would never get the chance as Dartmouth’s final possession evolved into the time-consuming monster.
“You run your normal offense,” McCorkle said of the approach to the drive that would clinch the game. “I mean, there’s a lot of time left on the clock. . . .
“But as we start to get to a certain part of the field and the clock gets down to a certain range, that’s when you get to be a little bit more strategic on what you’re doing.”
A big part of that strategy was getting the ball to Scott, who caught four passes on the drive, including three on third down that kept the march going. Scott finished the afternoon with 10 receptions for 75 yards.
“We just have a connection,” Proctor said of his ability to find Scott. “We've had it for the last couple of years. But I mean, it wasn't just him. It was all the other guys who were making blocks or blocking up front. … It’s a culmination of what everybody else is doing.
“But yeah, (Scott’s) been doing that for a long time. I don't know what he is in the record books or whatever, but that's just what he does. He comes up in clutch moments. ... We definitely needed those those three conversions to get down there.”
Scott’s final catch on third-and-three brought a first down at the Penn 20 with just over two minutes remaining. The Big Green would snap the ball eight more times. And with the clock winding – and Penn burning timeouts – the home team would run the ball eight more times behind a road-clearing offensive line that would help Q Jones (22 carries for 101 yard) and Desmin Jackson (14 for 98) put up big numbers and keep the Penn offense on the sidelines.
The only disappointment in the final drive was that the Big Green couldn’t punch the ball in on two tries from the one, but thanks to the almost-period-long drive, that didn’t matter.
“We knew as a team that offensively we're going to take what they give us,” said McCorkle. “And if that means we're going to throw a three-yard route or a four-yard route, we're going to do that. (If) that means we're going to run the ball inside. We're going to do that.
“The key was to keep the sticks moving, keep the chains moving, control the ball, keep their offense off the field as much as we possibly can. And I thought pretty much (throughout) the game we did that.”
Likewise, they kept Penn from moving the sticks. In addition to Sayin's struggles, standout wide receiver Jared Richardson managed just two catches for 18 yards and Hosley had his streak of 100-yard rushing games snapped while carrying 15 times for 82 yards. Penn managed just 211 yards of total offense.
“Obviously disappointed,” said Quakers' coach Ray Priore. “Our kids prepared well and hard for a typical Penn-Dartmouth battle … Coming into the game our offense passing the ball was pretty efficient, and running the ball, we were pretty efficient there. They changed up some of their schemes.”
Because they did, and because they dominated on both sides of the ball, they go into next week’s game at Yale Bowl atop the Ivy League standings.
“I just can’t say how proud I am of this football team,” McCorkle said. "I mean, just the way they came out in the second half.
“The first half, they were prepared, they were ready, came out and battled. You know we had some opportunities to make some plays in the first half that we didn't, and it cost us, but we didn't panic.”
Added the second-year coach: “The guys did a great job across the board. They stayed plugged in the entire game and they didn’t flinch.”
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