The Dartmouth College football team won its Ivy League opener on Friday, downing Pennsylvania, 28-15, in the schools’ Ivy League opener at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field.
The Big Green (3-0), which has won three consecutive games against the Quakers (1-2) and five of the schools’ last six meetings, hosts Yale for homecoming next Saturday.
Jared Gerbino completed nine of 12 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown and rushed 13 times for 77 yards and another score. Caylin Parker carried 10 times for 21 yards, and Zack Bair took three handoffs and produced 17 yards and a touchdown.
Bair caught three passes for 64 yards and a touchdown, and Hunter Hagdorn made five receptions for 25 yards. Ethan Maenza had three catches for 36 yards, and quarterback Derek Kyler connected on seven of 10 passes for 31 yards. Nigel Alexander made 12 tackles and Jack Traynor 10.
The Big Green piled up 167 rushing yards and 150 through the air while allowing Penn 112 yards rushing and 209 passing. Standout Quaker running back Karekin Brooks managed 91 yards and two touchdowns in 19 carries.
Dartmouth opened the scoring with six minutes remaining in the first quarter. Gerbino looked right and threw left to a wide-open Bair, who finished a 57-yard touchdown play. It was Gerbino’s sixth, passing score of the season and Connor Brooks added the first of his four extra points for a 7-0 lead.
The Big Green doubled its lead three minutes later when linebacker Jack Traynor returned a fumble 17 yards for a touchdown. Penn answered with a nine-play, 75-yard drive capped when Brooks ran 43 yards for a touchdown, and David Perkins kicked the extra point to make the score, 14-7.
The visitors went up, 21-7, when Bair ran 17 yards to cap Dartmouth’s nine-play, 75-yard march six minutes into the second quarter. That score stood up through halftime.
Gerbino’s 9-yard touchdown run with four minutes remaining all but locked up the result. The quarterback ran for three first downs and the score during an 84-yard, 15-play drive that consumed more than eight minutes.
Brooks ran 2 yards for a touchdown with two minutes to play. The Quakers threw for the 2-point conversion that closed the scoring.
Notes: All-American cornerback Isiah Swann missed his third consecutive game with a hamstring injury, but fifth-year senior Vito Penza, who’s battled back from knee injuries, played for the first time since the 2017 campaign. … Bair left the field with an apparent knee injury during the third quarter and did not return. Online broadcaster Wayne Young observed the sophomore was on crutches during the second half. … Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens won his 99th game at his alma mater. … Dartmouth defensive back D.J. Terry committed six penalties during the game. … The game was nationally televised on ESPNU.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.