Big Green Start Second Half of Season with Homecoming

Dartmouth (2-3, 1-1) vs. Columbia (2-3, 0-2)
Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 | 1:30 PM
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.
NESN / ESPN+ — Matt Corsetti play-by-play, Steve Goldberg analyst
Audio — Brett Franklin play-by-play, Wayne Young '72 analyst

Homecoming Starts Second Half
Dartmouth has reached the midpoint of the 2023 season, and it needs a win today to keep its Ivy League title hopes alive and well with Columbia in town. Coming off a pair of late losses to Yale and Colgate, the energy of a homecoming crowd could play a big role in the Big Green's fate.

Historically, Dartmouth has had more success against the Lions than any other Ivy League team with a .777 winning percentage in the series. While the Big Green have won three of the past four encounters, Columbia claimed the two before that. The Lions also boast the stingiest defense in the FCS, so Dartmouth will certainly have its work cut out for it in this matchup.

Last week, Colgate was the team energized for its homecoming, jumping out to a 17-3 halftime lead. But the tide turned in the second half, as the Big Green offense got on track, rallying from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime before coming up short in a 27-24 defeat.

Paxton Scott provided a good chunk of the offense, matching a personal best with 10 catches and setting a career high with 185 yards. He gave Dartmouth a tremendous opportunity to take the lead late in the fourth quarter by covering 65 yards on a catch-and-run down to the Raider 16, but a fumble on the very next play sabotaged those hopes.

Falling behind early forced the Big Green to take to the air more than usual, and the two QBs (Jackson Proctor and Nick Howard) combined for 372 yards, the most for the team since the final game of the 2019 campaign. Proctor threw for a career-high 278 yards himself, completing 21-of-25 throws, the sixth-highest percentage in Dartmouth history (minimum 15 completions).

Howard anchored the running game with 62 of the Big Green's 137 yards on the ground to go with two more touchdowns. He now has 31 in his career to move into second all-time in rushing TDs at Dartmouth. And while Q Jones was average 5.4 yards on his 10 carries, Tevita Moimoi reached the end zone on a 9-yard run — his first TD of the season — to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

The defense, which surrendered just 99 rushing yards over the previous three games combined, struggled to contain Colgate, allowing 154 on the ground and another 264 through the air. That total of 418 yards are the most given up this season, so expect there to be an emphasis on tightening up this week.

Linebackers Danny Cronin and Macklin Ayers had 12 and 11 tackles, respectively, while the latter also plucked his first career interception out of the air that led to Dartmouth's only score in the first half.

Special teams performed well all day until the potential game-tying field goal attempt in overtime was blocked. Freshman Owen Zalc is 7-of-10 on his field goal tries this season, but all three misses have been blocked. Return man Sean Williams continued to excel, averaging 31.0 yards on his two kick returns, and he is eighth in the country in punt return average (14.2).

Scouting the Lions
Columbia has been all about defense this year, allowing the fewest points (10.8 per game) in the FCS while ranking in ninth in yards allowed. But the Lions have only won games in which they shut out their opponent, besting Georgetown and Marist. Their two Ivy losses have been by three points apiece to Princeton (10-7) and Penn (20-17).

On the flip side, Columbia is only scoring 14.6 points a game, among the bottom 10 nationally. Caden Bell has been behind center for every snap, completing just 41.3 percent of his passes for just over 100 a game. He can run a bit as well and has crossed the goal line three times this year. but he has been sacked 10 times as well.

J.J. Jenkins has been the busiest receiver with 14 catches totaling 216 yards and the lone TD through the air for the Lions this season.

The running backs have performed quite well, led by Joey Giorgi at 4.5 yards per carry on his 86 rushes while Ty'son Edwards and Malcolm Terry II average about 5.0 yards. It is rare for the trio of backs to be dropped behind the line of scrimmage; they have suffered just 12 lost yards on their 139 combined attempts.

Columbia has been equally adept at disrupting the run and passing games, yielding fewer than 100 rushing yards per game and ranking second in the FCS in defensive pass efficiency.

Linebacker Anthony Roussos is the anchor of the defense with his 45 tackles, seven going for a loss (both rank third in the Ivy League). DL Justin Townsend has 2.5 of the Lions' nine sacks, and Aaron Brebnor and Rocco Milia have both picked off a pair of passes.

Columbia always seems to have a strong punter, and William Hughes is keeping that tradition going at 43.9 yards per boot. And three of Hugo Merry's four field goals have come from 40-42 yards.

Interim head coach Mark Fabish (Penn '97) took over the reins on Aug. 4 following the retirement of Ivy legend Al Bagnoli. He is in his ninth season on the staff and had been the associate head coach and offensive coordinator since 2016. He has also had stints coaching at Monmouth (1998-2007), Rhode Island (2008) and his alma mater (2009-14). A four-year letterman for the Quakers, he earned All-Ivy honors at WR in 1996.

McCorkle Promoted
On Thursday, Dartmouth Director of Athletics and Recreation Mike Harrity announced that Sammy McCorkle has been promoted from his position as interim head coach to the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach. McCorkle is in his 19th year on the staff and was the associate head coah for the past nine years under Buddy Teevens '79, who passed away last month following injuries suffered in a bicycle accident in March.

Mid-Season All-American
The Phil Steele football organization announced its FCS Mid-Season All-Americans on Thursday, and long snapper Josh Greene was listed on the third team. The fifth-year senior was one of nine Ivy Leaguers to make one of the four teams. Greene has been the team's long snapper for the last three seasons and has been incredibly consistent in his accuracy while also demonstrating good speed in being one of the first on the punt coverage team to get downfield on a regular basis.

Last Year Against the Lions
Dartmouth saw a 15-point lead evaporate in the second half, but Ryan Bloch kicked the game-winning, 32-yard field goal with only four seconds remaining to lift the Big Green to a 27-24 victory. Special teams played a big role even outside of the field goal, including a blocked punt recovered in the end zone for a touchdown and a fumble recovery on a punt return that led to another TD. The Lions also missed a 29-yard field goal with 1:11 to play before the Big Green embarked on a five-play, 65-yard drive into field goal range. Paxton Scott had his first 100-yard game with 104 receiving yards and also threw a touchdown toss.

Overtime Giveth and Taketh Away
On Sept. 30, Dartmouth earned a hard-fought road win at Penn in overtime when Owen Zalc booted a 37-yard field goal to end the 23-20 game. Fast forward two weeks later, and after rallying from a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit, the Big Green saw Colgate strike first in the overtime period with a field goal. That opened the door for a victory, but when Dartmouth stalled out at the 13, it was merely trying to tie the score. Zalc's 29-yard attempt, however, was blocked, abruptly ending the game, leaving the Green 7-9 all-time in overtime contests.

Great Scott!
Senior WR Paxton Scott continued to be a star for the Big Green at Colgate, matching a personal best with 10 catches and setting another with 185 yards receiving the week after he became the 15th player in Dartmouth history with 100 catches to his credit. He is second in the Ivy League in both receptions per game (6.0) and yards per game (82.0) as well as the top 15 in the FCS in both categories. He has led the team in receiving and yardage each of his first two seasons and is well on his way to making it three this year.

Howard Running Toward Records
With two more touchdowns at Colgate — his 13th career multi-TD game — QB Nick Howard has run for 31 scores in his career, surpassing Dominick Pierre '14 for second on the Dartmouth charts. Only Myles Lane from the Class of 1928 ran for more (33) in Big Green history. Howard, who has run for more yards than any Dartmouth QB previously, needs just 27 more yards on the ground to move into the program's top 10 for career yardage. And finally, he is tied with place kicker Foley Schmidt '12 for fifth place on the career scoring list with 186 points.

Colgate is Kryptonite
Yes, in this analogy, Dartmouth football is Superman, just go with it. There isn't another team in college football that has had as much success against the Big Green than the Raiders. With the 27-24 overtime decision going Colgate's way on Oct. 14, it is now 19-7-1 (.722) all-time against Dartmouth. That is by far the best winning percentage of any opponent that has faced the Big Green at least 10 times. Next on that list? Ivy nemesis Harvard, which is 72-48-5 (.596).

Unusual Loss
Dartmouth piled up more than 500 yards of offense at Colgate on Oct. 14, just the 34th time it has done so since the start of the 1969 campaign (54 seasons). But with the 27-24 defeat, the Big Green dropped to 28-6 (.824) in those games, though three of the six losses (including this one) did come in overtime contests.

Speaking of Yards …
Due to a 14-point halftime deficit, the Big Green took to the air quite often at Colgate and finished with 372 passing yards, their most since the final game of the 2019 campaign. Jackson Proctor posted a career-high 278 of those yards, completing 21-of-25 throws, the sixth-best percentage (84.0, minimum 15 completions) in Dartmouth history (though only the second best of the season as Dylan Cadwallader completed 84.2 percent — 16-of-19 — against Lehigh). Oddly enough, the Green did not have a touchdown through the air, just the third time in 48 300-yard passing games that has happened. And all those passing yards are not necessarily a good barometer for winning — Dartmouth is 23-24-1 when topping 300 yards.

Up in the Ayers
At Colgate, linebacker Macklin Ayers did his usual thing, piling up tackles with a season-high 11 on his ledger. But the senior also did something he had not done in college before — intercept a pass. He has teammate Jordan Washington to thank for it as the cornerback dove to deflect a pass straight up in the air, and Ayers was there to collect the prize. It was just the second pickoff of the season for the defense. The fewest ever in a season for the Green? Three in 2006.

Danny Boy
While Ayers was taking 11 Raiders to the turf at Colgate, his LB teammate Danny Cronin one-upped him with a career-high dozen stops to lead all players. That boosts his season total to 29 on the season, good for third on the team behind Ayers and safety Sean Williams with 30. And it's Cronin who has the Big Green's other interception, by the way.

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