Oct. 12, 2024: Dartmouth 44, Yale 43 (ot)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale holds a 30-7 lead over Dartmouth late in the third quarter. The score is 37-16 midway through the fourth quarter before the Big Green scores two touchdowns in a span of 56 seconds to pull within 37-30.
After Yale’s 47-yard field goal sails wide left, Dartmouth’s Grayson Saunier ties the score on a 32-yard quarterback draw with 1:22 on the clock. When Yale’s 46-yard field goal attempt with three seconds remaining is wide left yet again, the game goes to overtime.
The Big Green escapes a second-and-17 hole in the top half of the overtime and scores a touchdown to take a 44-37 lead. Yale responds with a touchdown in the bottom half of the OT and opts to go for the win. The Bulldogs have an open receiver, but an overthrow gives Dartmouth the biggest comeback in school history.
Oct. 11, 2025: Dartmouth 17, Yale 16
HANOVER – The Yale defense is pitching a shutout, and the offense is doing enough to give the Bulldogs a 10-0 lead through three quarters.
A six-yard Saunier run caps a 92-yard drive and pulls Dartmouth within 10-7 with 10:24 remaining. At the 4:13 mark, it is Saunier running 37 yards to finish off a 75-yard drive to give the home team a 14-10 lead.
Yale answers right back as quarterback Dante Reno drives the Bulldogs 70 yards in 12 plays, the last a four-yard touchdown pass that brings a two-point lead with 37 seconds remaining. With an extra point, Dartmouth needs a miracle touchdown to win the game outright or a field goal to force overtime.
Except the Yale kicking game lets the Bulldogs down again as the PAT fails.
Dartmouth takes over at its own 25. Seven plays and two Big Green timeouts later, Owen Zalc drills a 51-yard field goal for another dramatic, one-point Dartmouth win.
Oct. 10, 2026: To Be Continued?
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – You can be sure Yale players haven’t forgotten the torment brought on by crushing losses to Dartmouth the last two years.
And you can be just as sure what happened in those games won’t make one iota of difference once the ball is kicked off at noon Saturday in Sammy McCorkle’s view.
“What happened the last two years has no effect on this game,” the Big Green head coach said. “We’ve got different guys. They’ve got different guys. It’s a different year and it’s a different game. Once the whistle blows, last year and 2024 do not matter.
“I don’t control what they think down there and how they motivate themselves. What I know is our guys are always prepared, and we are going into the game to win it. That’s our goal.”
Key to beating Yale (2-1, 0-1 Ivy League) for the third year in a row is limiting the effectiveness of quarterback Dante Reno, in his second year at Yale after transferring from South Carolina. With standout running back Josh Pitsenberger and his 1,571 yards graduated, and top receiver Nico Brown and his 71 catches for 1,085 yards now at Stanford, Reno’s passing numbers have leaped from 208 yards per game a year ago to 376 this fall. He has tossed nine touchdowns in two appearances, missing the 35-28 loss at Cornell with a reported elbow injury.
“He’s a good field general,” McCorkle said. “He controls the game and does a very good job running that offense. He has really good football instincts and feel for the game.”
Reno went 30-for-43 for 454 yards and five touchdowns in Yale’s season-opening, 38-28 win over Holy Cross. Last week he earned respect across the football world after he tossed four more TDs and threw for 298 yards in a 41-24 win over Merrimack in the aftermath of the death of his father, longtime Yale coach Tony Reno.
Top receiving targets for the Bulldogs are Jaxton Santiago, who has 22 catches with five touchdowns and a 17.8-yard average gain, and Lucius Anderson, who has 21 grabs with two touchdowns. Tight end Graham Smith has just seven grabs, but three are for touchdowns.
Dartmouth has struggled against the pass this fall, with opponents completing 74.5 percent of their attempts. McCorkle knows his team faces a challenge against Reno, his two 6-foot-3, wide receivers, and his 6-5 tight end.
“Those guys are good players,” he said. “I mean, they’re some ESPN SportsCenter guys. They do a good job of going up and taking the ball out of the air, and Dante does a good job of putting it where they are in position to make plays.”
Reno finished last year with 21 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His ratio is significantly better this year with nine touchdowns to one interception.
“We’ve got to be very disciplined with our technique and with our eyes,” said McCorkle. “We’ve got to be where we’re supposed to be and at the same time buy time for our D-line to get there. And our D-line has to put pressure on, and force them to make bad decisions.”
Dartmouth’s defensive line got its only sack of the season last week on Penn’s attempted Hail Mary at the end.
McCorkle also will be looking for the Big Green line to help steady a run defense that is allowing 178 yards per game on the ground, seventh in the Ivy League. Although that stat might be inflated by the caliber of competition Dartmouth has faced, preseason Ivy favorite Yale’s run game will present a challenge. After opening with just 70 rushing yards against Holy Cross and managing 117 at Cornell, the Bulldogs piled up 178 yards last week.
Leading the ground game is Hugo Djeumeni Kemen, a 6-0, 215-pound sophomore who announced himself with 30 carries for 132 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s a physical guy who does a good job of getting downhill but then can get lateral on you,” said McCorkle. “He’ll bounce it out on you and get the corner so again, we have to be really disciplined, wrap him up and limit his yards after contact.”
Yale comes into the contest leading the Ivy League in scoring at 34.7 points per game, and is at the bottom of the Ivy League in points allowed at 30.0 per game. Dartmouth will be trying to improve on its own 20.7 points per game average, sixth in the conference.
“We’ve got to finish drives,” said McCorkle. “We can’t have self-inflicted mistakes – bad snaps, negative yards, and penalties. We don’t want to have to settle for trying for field goals, but when we do, we’ve got to make them.”
The overall key, McCorkle believes, is in the engine room.
“We’ve got to win up front, and that’s on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to run the football and give Grayson time back there to throw the ball.
“On the other side, we have got to make sure we are good up front against the run and not allow them to get manageable second and third downs. On third down, we have got to get heat on that quarterback. We have to make him move around and make him uncomfortable.”
NOTES – Yale hasn’t lost a home game since falling to the Big Green in 2024. The streak hit 10 games last week. . . . Dartmouth has won seven of the last 10 games between the teams, the most of any Yale opponent. . . . The average margin between the teams over the last five meetings is 3.8 points. Starting in 2021, the games have been decided in overtime by seven points, three points, seven points, one point in 2024 and one point again last year. . . . The Big Green has either been tied or had the lead in the fourth quarter of all three games this fall. . . . Yale coach Kevin Cahill, a veteran of 10 years on the late Tony Reno’s staff, returned to New Haven this year after leading Lehigh to back-to-back Patriot League championships that featured a 12-0 regular season last fall.