New York — Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens was handed a sheet of post-game statistics midway through his news conference following his team’s 9-7 loss to Columbia on Staurday afternoon at Robert K. Kraft field.

Not like the numbers would tell a different story; they illustrated what Teevens already knew.

“It’s tremendously disappointing,” Teevens said. “They outplayed us. They shut us down offensively. Really, it was a horrendous offensive performance. We did absolutely nothing for the better part of the game. … Defensively, you hold a team to nine points, you figure you’re going to win most of those games.

“Literally, there wasn’t a play we executed over the course (of the game),” he added. “It wasn’t lack of effort on our part, the guys were ready to play. They just beat us. That’s a tough one.”

Dartmouth (3-3 overall, 0-3 Ivy League) was held to a season-low seven points in a hostile wind and rain that greeted the announced crowd of nearly 9,000 who came out for the Lions’ homecoming game. It was the first homecoming victory for Columbia since 2000 and Dartmouth’s first loss to the Lions since its winless 2008 season.

“I’m really happy for our kids,” Columbia second-year coach, Al Bagnoli, the former longtime Penn mentor, said. “I didn’t realize how long the homecoming victory drought was. It’s been 16 years, which is obviously far too long.

“I couldn’t be happier for our kids and our alumni base,” he added. “I thought it was an awesome win. … That’s a good football team. They’re very physical, good-looking, they’re coming off of a terrific year last year. It’s an established program. For us to take the next step, we’re going to have to start beating teams that are established and in the upper echelon of our league.”

Columbia’s freshman kicker, Oren Milstein, scored all nine points for the Lions, marking the second time this season he’s led Columbia (2-4, 1-2 in Ivy League) offensively. Milstein was 3-for-4 on field goals Saturday.

Teevens called his team’s offensive statistics “pathetic.” Dartmouth was 1-for-17 on third-down conversions against Columbia’s stalwart defense, which forced the Big Green to punt 11 times. The Lions also allowed only 74 rushing yards on 30 rushing attempts.

Dartmouth found more luck in the air, despite the hostile weather conditions that made throwing the ball unpredictable.

Big Green quarterback Jack Heneghan was 13-for-38 passing for 242 yards and a touchdown, a 65-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Hagdorn with 5 minutes, 3 seconds left in the second quarter. Heneghan also threw an interception.

Milstein broke the scoreless tie with 7:26 to go in the second quarter, following a 34-yard keeper by Columbia quarterback Anders Lee that put the Lions within striking distance.

Heneghan and Hagdorn connected more than two minutes later, helping the Big Green take a 7-3 lead into halftime.

Milstein cut the Columbia deficit to one point with a 20-yard field goal with 9:11 left in the third quarter before taking the lead with a 31-yard field goal eight minutes later to give the Lions all the offense they needed. He is 9-for-10 on field goal attempts this season.

Dartmouth had one last chance to retake the lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, starting a drive with 2:15 left to go on their 1-yard line. Heneghan, after two incomplete passes and an successful rush from Ryder Stone, converted on fourth-and-10 to Hagdorn up the middle keep his team alive.

Dartmouth could march only to the Columbia 30, forcing Teevens to go for a 47-yard field goal attemtp from David Smith with 21 seconds remaining. The kick was short for his second miss of the game.

“The biggest drive we had was 70 yards, really desperation situation,” Teevens said. “And then we need to complete a pass, we’re 0-for-3, we need to kick a field goal and it’s just off. It’s just a bad deal.”

Added Heneghan: “We obviously had our backs against the wall. It felt like we needed to make a play. The defense had been carrying us all game; we kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Guys, we need to step up.’ Just trying to do the two-minute drill like we do in practice. We did some good things, but could have done more getting yardage.”

The Big Green doesn’t have much time to figure out its offensive struggles as it next hosts Harvard, which improved to 3-0 in Ivy play on Saturday with a 23-20 overtime win against Princeton.

Dartmouth has come a long way after starting the season with an improbable victory over New Hampshire, but Teevens knows his team still has a ways to go after laying a proverbial goose egg against a Columbia team that the Big Green, historically, has been able to handle.

“We’ve got better athletes than what this would indicate offensively,” Teevens insisted. “We need to put points on the board. Three field goals. That’s what beat us.”

Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.