What They Did & What They Said After Central Connecticut
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – It wasn’t easy, and Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle didn’t expect it to be.
For the second straight week of this young season, and the second straight meeting with Central Connecticut, the Big Green has played with fire without getting burned.
“Our guys do a really good job of hanging in there, staying focused and locked in, and not panicking while continuing to do their stuff,” McCorkle said outside the boisterous locker room after the 35-28 win. “We knew this game was going to be a battle, and we need battles like this.”
They’ve had their share under McCorkle. Coming into this season he had 14 wins on his head coaching resumé at Darmouth, with exactly half of them decided by four or fewer points. He’s now 16-6 since taking over for Buddy Teevens, with six of the wins by a field goal or less. And he's 9-2 in one-possession games.
The only one-possession losses have been to Harvard: the Crimson held off the Big Green in 2023, 17-9, and came from behind to win in Hanover last year, 31-27.
“I mean, this is who we are,” McCorkle said of the latest close call. “We battle. We always keep fighting, and fighting, and fighting. You’ve got to play to the final whistle and that’s what we did again.”
That was no surprise to tight end Chris Corbo, who was confident on the final two possessions that his team would march down the field and finish the job.
“We’ve worked on those situations all throughout preseason, and in season now,” he said. “We knew once we got the ball with the chance to win it, we were well equipped to do it.”
Added the senior All-America: “We have a lot of things to fix, a lot of things to clean up. But the biggest thing we showed is the tenaciousness of this team, the will to fight and battle and not give up when plays go against us. Our grit and determination to keep going and win is really impressive to me.”
According to Zyion Freer-Brown, it is McCorkle who sets that tone.
“Coach tells us to keep our composure and act like you’ve been there before,” said the linebacker. “I trust the guys behind me. I trust all 11 guys on the defense. I trust everybody on the team. We know that we’ve got each other's back no matter what, so we're going to execute and do our jobs.”
Which is what quarterback Grayson Saunier – whose four career starts have all been one-possession wins – continues to do.
“Obviously we want to win in a different way,” he said. “We want to beat teams by two, three-plus scores. We have the ability to do that, however, that's not always how it's going to go. So we have to keep preparing for games like this.
“Now we just have put all three phases of the game together. I think if we play our best game in all three phases we'll be all right."
STATISICALLY SPEAKING
Saunier completed passes to eight receivers on his way to a career-high 407 yards on 30-of-44 passing (68.2 percent). Grayson O’Bara led the way with seven catches for 128 yards, including a 71-yarder. Corbo caught seven balls for 68 yards and a touchdown and Daniel Haughton had six grabs for 68 yards before leaving the game with an injury.
DJ Crowther had five catches for 21 yards to go with his 24 carries for 86 yards and two touchdowns on another busy day. Saunier ran three times for 21 yards and matched Crowther’s long of 16 yards.
Central Connecticut QB Brady Olson, a 50-percent passer coming in, completed 25-of-33 passes (75.8 percent) with three touchdowns in one of the best performances of his career. Dartmouth’s defense did a solid job limiting dangerous Central Connecticut running back Elijah Howard to 69 yards on 14 carries.
Nickel Tyson Grimm led the Dartmouth defense with eight tackles while linebacker Nico Schwikal had seven stops, with one for a loss, and a jarring pass breakup. Up front, Dakota Quiñonez had six tackles, a tackle for loss and a QB hurry. Zyion Freer-Brown had five tackles including a sack while adding a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery on the final play of the game. Cameron Best-Alston also had five stops. Linebacker Teddy Gianaris had four tackles including a sack, and was credited with four quarterback hurries.
Dartmouth piled up 31 first downs on its way to a 524-289 advantage in total offense. The Big Green ran 76 plays to the Blue Devils’ 61, and had a five minute advantage in time of possession.
The Ivy Leaguers finished 7-of-12 on third down to Central Connecticut’s 3-of-9, and posted four sacks along with 10 QB hurries. The Big Green offensive line did not allow a sack.
Dartmouth drives in order (plays/yards result): 6/39/interception; 4/75/TD; 7/69/lost fumble; 6/53/TD; 7/17/FG; 15/76/FG; 8/43/missed FG; 10/52/missed FG; 3/6/punt; 9/89/TD; 5/75/TD.
Central Connecticut drives in order (plays/yards result): 5/13/punt; 6/38/TD; 9/68/TD; 3/6/punt; 2/7/lost fumble; 5/12/punt; 3/-6/punt; 11/80/TD; 3/10/punt; 12/80/TD; 2/2/lost fumble.
THEY SAID IT
Central Connecticut coach Adam Lechtenberg (to the New Britain Herald): “We played a really good team and we made one too many mistakes. We gave them some opportunities to win the game and we didn't make enough plays. I was proud of our effort. We played hard in all phases, we executed in all phases."
Lechtenberg: “That's a team that's won four of the last five Ivy League championships, and they'll have a chance to win it again this year. So we played physical, we played hard, we just didn't play well enough.”
Dartmouth linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown: “They are a good team. They are a really sound team, so hats off to those guys. We knew they were going to give us everything they’ve got. We knew it was going to be a dogfight, but we’ve got dudes on this team.”
Dartmouth wide receiver Ky’Dric Fisher: “A lot of our games, even dating back to last year, are very close. For us to come out to win games like that shows that we're resilient. We don't back down. Winning games like this is a testament to the work we put in.”
Dartmouth tight end Chris Corbo: “We like to make it interesting. It was a game of turns. They made some plays, we made some plays, but we stayed level-headed.”
Corbo on what the Big Green takes out of the game as it heads to Philadelphia for its conference opener against Penn this week: ”We’re battle tested after two tough games. I think we’re ready to go and excited to get to Ivy League play. We know what the stakes are so we’re going to get to the film (Sunday), wipe it and get ready for Penn.”
Dartmouth offensive lineman Konstantin Spörk on the Dartmouth approach during the final drive: “We’re always confident we are going to make it. Especially this season we have great confidence in the offense, and it doesn’t feel like we are under pressure. We’re just doing what we are supposed to do and that’s working out for us. We’ll enjoy this game for 12 hours and then lock in on Penn.”
Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier on his 407 yards through the air: “None of that matters. The only thing that is important is we got the W. Some games we need to pass it, some games we need to run the ball. Today we had to throw it more than usual. Whatever coach throws at us, we’ve got to be ready to do.”
Saunier on suffering another first-possession interception: “You don’t want to throw those picks, but things happen. It’s all about bouncing back and battling through adversity. The defense has our back and whether they score or not we’ve got to be ready for the next drive. So it’s about wiping it and just moving on from there.”
