Ithaca, n.y.
The game was the 100th between the teams, and the win gave Dartmouth (4-4, 1-4 Ivy League) a 59-40-1 lead over Cornell. Unlike the previous six meetings, this game provided some late drama.
Trailing 13-3 early in the fourth, the Big Green started at their own 16-yard line. Heneghan threw four first-down passes on the drive, including one with a 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty tacked on, moving the ball into Cornell territory. Miles Smith finished off the 12-play, 84-yard drive with a 1-yard scoring run to cut Dartmouth’s deficit to 13-10.
Smith finished the game with 125 yards rushing on 25 carries. The Big Green totaled 179 yards on the ground Saturday after averaging 126 in their previous seven games.
“We were challenging our offensive line all week long, (telling them) we have got to establish the run. We just really have not done that this year,” Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens said. “You preach it, you harp on it, you push it. You’ve got to be able to run the football to have success.”
After a 28-yard kickoff return by Harold Coles gave Cornell the ball on its own 35, Dalton Banks hit tight end Matt Sullivan with a 19-yard pass. The momentum was stopped three plays later, however, when Chris Walker fumbled and linebacker Jake Moen pounced on the loose ball at the 37.
Later in the drive, Heneghan found Hunter Hagdorn with a 25-yard pass, and Smith ran for 19 more on third-and-10, setting up the pass to Mack.
Heneghan completed 22 of 33 passes for 226 yards. Hagdorn led the Big Green with 69 receiving yards.
The Big Green forced Cornell into another three-and-out possession, and the tandem of Smith and Rashaad Cooper combined for 41 yards, helping Dartmouth to run out the clock.
Cornell (3-5, 1-4 Ivy) took a 13-3 lead on its first possession of the second half, a 17-play, 86-yard grind that took more than seven minutes off the clock. Dalton Banks started the drive with a 15-yard pass to Marshall Deutz, and his 12th and final throw of the drive found Hayes Nolte for a 4-yard touchdown.
Banks completed 28 of 43 passes for 216 yards and added 22 yards rushing, but also was sacked three times. Walker led Cornell with 38 yards on 11 carries.
Dartmouth had a chance to make it a one-score game on its next drive, but David Smith missed a 40-yard field goal.
The Big Red started the game with two long drives, but both times the Dartmouth defense held Cornell to field goals, and despite only running five offensive plays in the first quarter, the Big Green trailed just 6-0.
After the second Big Red field goal, Hagdorn ran the ensuing kickoff back to the 40, but a holding call forced the ball back to the 14. Dartmouth drove down the field, but a touchdown pass from Heneghan to Smith was negated by an illegal block in the back penalty. Cornell stopped Smith on third-and-inches at the 14, and the Big Green had to settle for a 32-yard Smith field goal, cutting the deficit in half.
Dartmouth’s defense forced another punt, and Heneghan moved the Big Green deep into Cornell territory. The key play was a 26-yard pass to Hagdorn on third-and-8. However, Hagdorn’s next pass was intercepted by Justin Solomon in the end zone.
“(I told them at halftime), offensively, just stop hurting ourselves,” Teevens sad. “In the first half we had the procedure (penalty), we had a guy that ran the wrong route, we had the QB bump into the running back, just clown stuff. We need to play good, smart football.”
Dartmouth will face Brown in its final home game of the regular season on Saturday.