NEW YORK CITY – It wasn’t quite the “middle eight,” but it was close, and that’s a pretty good trick considering Dartmouth didn’t have the ball either on the final possession of the first half or the first possession of the second.
Still, the Big Green managed a touchdown as time ran out in the opening half and another on its first possession of the second and it went on to ruin yet another Columbia Homecoming with a 38-18 win Saturday.
With its second win in a row, Dartmouth improved to 3-3 overall, but most importantly to 2-1 in the Ivy League heading into Friday night’s nationally televised Memorial Field date with undefeated Harvard.
Columbia, which was coming off a 28-27 win at Penn, fell to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in conference while suffering its fifth consecutive Homecoming loss.
With a crowd of 12,932 still filtering in from the tailgates, the Lions won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. The Big Green proceeded to make them pay, taking the kickoff and immediately driving 75 yards in 11 plays, the last a 14-yard run by Myles Craddock (23 carries for 128 yards) to take a lead it would never relinquish.
After a a three-yard touchdown run by Big Green freshman Jacob Henry early in the second quarter countered a Columbia field goal, the Lions answered with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Chase Goodwin to Hutch Crow to make it 14-10. But that would be as close as they would get.
Taking over at his own 20 with 4:09 left in the half, Grayson Saunier – returning to action after missing the second half a week earlier because of injury – completed passes of 20, 16 and 36 yards to march the Big Green to the one-yard line. On third-and-one with 55 seconds on the clock, he took the snap and got just enough push from the left side of the line to reach up and hold the ball over the goal line for a touchdown and a 21-10 lead at the half.
After getting a stop on Columbia's opening series of the second half Dartmouth completed its faux middle eight by driving 83 yards in 15 plays for another one-yard Saunier TD run, stretching the lead to 18 points.
“It’s all about starting fast, and we did that to start the game and again in the second half,” said Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle. “It’s something we talk about all the time. We have got to come out ready to go. Going down there and scoring was huge. It just builds the energy and gets everything going.
“And then defensively, same thing. Making a stop to start the second half and then scoring was huge.”
Columbia closed the gap to 10 points on a 14-yard touchdown catch by standout freshman Bryce Coleman and a two-point conversion, but then it was the Big Green defense taking over with not one, not two, but three interceptions in the final quarter. First, it was corner Thai Brown on his initial play of the game picking off Goodwin to set up a 41-yard Owen Zalc field goal for a 31-18 lead.
Then it was Harrison Keith, who batted away five passes with a clubbed hand last week, ending Columbia’s next possession with an interception and 22-yard return midway through the fourth.
Now needing a furious comeback, Columbia drove to the Dartmouth 22 before a sack by Keoni Perkins put the Lions in a hole. After a third-and-16 incompletion, No’Koi Maddox completed the Big Green’s fourth-quarter interception hat trick with a pick at the goal line with just over three minutes remaining.
McCorkle liked the way his defense played all game, but particularly in the fourth quarter when it refused to let a Columbia team that erased a 17-point deficit in a win over Penn a week ago get back in the game. And McCorkle wasn't the only one to like what he saw.
Visiting with his old team outside the locker room after the game, former Big Green defensive coordinator Don Dobes gave the showing the ultimate compliment. “That’s Dartmouth defense,” he said. McCorkle agreed.
“We said that we have got to play to our standard,” the head coach said, “and we knew that we weren't playing our standard early in the season. Hats off to our defensive staff and our players who really put in the effort to fix that. And they did.
“I think it’s just a combination of everybody, 11 guys playing together, because that's what creates those situations. Coverage, pressure, all of that. And our guys did a really good job.”
But the job wasn't quite over after the Maddox interception.
Taking over at the 20 after the pick, Dartmouth kept the ball on the ground with Saunier running for a first down and then sliding before going out of bounds to keep the clock running.
After Columbia used its final timeout with 1:55 remaining and the ball at the Big Green, Saunier ran over the left side and never stopped for a 68-yard touchdown that had him sounding sheepish after the game.
“I knew (offensive coordinator Shane) Montgomery wanted me to stay inbounds,” he said. “I didn't realize he wanted me to get the first down and slide, or get down like I did the play before. So it was kind of a miscommunication, but I knew if they gave it to me I was going to take it.
“I should have just gotten down on the ground to get the game out of the way. Maybe not the classiest thing to do, but hindsight is 20-20.”
McCorkle would have preferred his QB not risk injury or a fumble but had to admit it was a highlight-reel moment.
“It was a great run, a great call,” he said. “I tried to chase him down, but I couldn't catch him. I was yelling as loud as I could to get down, but he obviously either didn't hear me, or acted like he didn't hear me.”
McCorkle could afford to joke after the quarterback he couldn’t be sure early in the week would play went 14-for-24 for 172 yards with completions to 10 different receivers. And after the Big Green run game piled up 247 yards. And after the Dartmouth defense had five pass breakups, at least two passes batted down at the line, three interceptions, and two sacks.
“It's just all about confidence and playing our brand of football,” McCorkle said. “What I told the guys before the game is you need to play our brand of football. We need to play Dartmouth football, and I thought we did that pretty much. Again, there's still stuff we have got to clean up and we have got to get better at. . . .
“We have got to learn from this game and enjoy it. We'll enjoy it on the ride home. But tomorrow we have got to buckle up and get ready for Harvard because it's going to get here fast.”
To listen to Keith, the message has gotten through.
“We always say, once you get into Ivy League play, it's playoff time. So we have that mindset of going one-and-oh each and every week. We knew Columbia was a good team. We knew in order to reach the goals that we have for this team in the long run, we had to take it one step at a time.
“I think we did that today and need that to carry over for the next game, because it's a big one.”
Dartmouth plays host to Harvard (6-0, 3-0) Friday night at 7.