HANOVER — For the third consecutive week, the Dartmouth football team’s game came down to the wire, but this time the Big Green came out on top, picking up their first win of the season with a 14-10 victory over Penn on Saturday afternoon at Buddy Teevens Stadium at Memorial Field.
From the Dartmouth 16-yard line, Penn, trailing by four, faced a fourth-and-3 with 1:22 remaining.
With a Big Green homecoming crowd full throat, Quakers’ freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki dropped back to throw and fired an incomplete pass intended for junior wideout Ronan Johannson, who sophomore defensive back Colter Vela blanketed.
Dartmouth (1-2) bled the clock with three runs and a punt after taking over on downs, leaving Penn just nine seconds for a miracle with no timeouts.
Teodecki threw an incomplete pass to start Penn’s last-chance possession, and sophomore linebacker Uche Odimegwu sacked the freshman on the final play from scrimmage to lock down the Big Green’s win.
“Just super proud of these guys. Super proud of the way we battled, you know, close down to the end there — I was just telling these guys — to have all three phases step up at the end of that fourth quarter — that was huge,” Dartmouth head coach Sammy McCorkle said.
“Wasn’t pretty; they never are. Any time you face an Ivy opponent, you’re going to get their best,” he added.
With the win, the Big Green got back on track after starting 0-2 for the first time since 2009. The victory was especially welcome as Saturday’s contest marked the opening of Ivy League play for Dartmouth.
“Coach McCorkle said it just before this, but it’s tough — winning is tough — but anything that’s easy isn’t really worth it. This win felt amazing; the first two games didn’t go (in) our favor, but we know to be a good team, we have to learn how to win the close games,” said senior defensive back Cameron Best-Alston, who had the second most total tackles (12) for the Big Green.
“We know it’s going to be a dogfight every Ivy League team we face, but we’re not striving to play close games; we’re striving to dominate, so, got to keep the momentum rolling and hopefully get this ship sailing,” he added.
The Big Green offense got to work early after their defense forced Penn to punt to begin the game.
Dartmouth drove 80 yards in 13 plays, capped off by a 16-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Grayson Saunier to junior wideout Ky’Dric Fisher, who ran a nice double move to get free by the back left pylon of the end zone to take an early 7-0 lead.
Saunier finished 13-of-15 and threw for 173 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 36 yards, in a bounce-back performance after last week’s loss to Monmouth, when he was 11-of-27, lost a fumble, and threw for 148 yards and two touchdowns.
That drive, however, accounted for most of the first-half scoring. Penn punted on its next possession, and Dartmouth followed that up with a missed field goal from 53 yards out. Penn missed its own field goal from 28 yards out on the drive after the Big Green’s miss.
With around four minutes left in the half, the Big Green punted after Saunier fumbled a snap on third down.
This set up the Quakers for a chance to get on the board before half, and they did, driving 71 yards in 10 plays for a 26-yard field goal by sophomore Mason Walters to make it 7-3 with 33 seconds left in the second quarter.
After the break, scoring remained tough for both squads. The Big Green drove 42 yards on their first drive of the second half before stalling, setting up senior kicker Owen Zalc for a 51-yard field goal, which he missed.
Penn answered with its own empty possession on the ensuing drive, moving to Dartmouth’s 23-yard line and failing to convert a fourth-and-3.
The Big Green took over on downs and drove again into Penn territory, this time to the Quakers’ 20-yard line, but had to settle for a field goal attempt, which Zalc could not convert.
“Missing three field goals — that’s not who we are, that’s not Owen, he knows that, but we’ll get that fixed, he’ll get that fixed, I have all the confidence going forward that it’ll be taken care of,” McCorkle said.
Unlike the first sequence of the second half, Penn capitalized this time on the Dartmouth miss.
The Quakers took over late in the third quarter and took over eight minutes to drive 80 yards, capped off by a 1-yard rush from senior running back Sean Williams Jr. for a score and a 10-7 lead.
Trailing by three with under nine minutes to play, Saunier was lights out. The senior signal caller began the ensuing drive with a 34-yard completion to senior wideout Nick Lemon, who led the Big Green in receiving on Saturday with 56 yards on three catches.
After a short rush from sophomore running back Myles Craddock, Saunier found Fisher open on a curl by the left sideline. The junior caught the pass and evaded multiple Quakers before getting taken down out of bounds at Penn’s 17-yard line for a 23-yard gain.
Five plays later, Craddock, who led Dartmouth in rushing with 85 yards on 21 carries, punched it into the end zone from two yards out to finish an 8-play, 75-yard drive and retake the lead, 14-10, with 4:55 remaining.
That score proved enough, as Penn could not find its way back to the end zone, sealing the win for Dartmouth.
“We knew it was going to be a 60-minute game, and it was a 60-minute game. But our guys just kept battling — … it wasn’t always what we wanted, but we didn’t let that bother us, and we forgot about the last play and moved on to the next play — but, happy with the outcome,” McCorkle said.
The Big Green visit Yale (2-1) on Saturday at noon.
