Sports Weekly 11/17/14

11. 17. 14

MEN’S SOCCER EARNS NCAA BID WITH IVY TITLE

FOOTBALL PULLS AWAY FROM BROWN FOR 44-21 WIN

MEN’S HOCKEY FALLS TO YALE, DOMINATES BROWN IN 6-0 WIN TRACY WANG, JEFFREY LEE, KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

122 Yards surrendered by the football team’s defense in the second half against Brown.

48 Shots by the men’s hockey team in a 6-0 win over Brown.

0 Number of Ivy League schools besides Dartmouth going to next weekend’s NCAA cross country championship.

3 Receiving touchdowns

by Ryan McManus ’15 to tie the Dartmouth record set in 1989.

Men’s soccer clinches NCAA berth with 3-0 win B y alexander agadjanian

As the horn sounded on the final regular season game, the men’s soccer team was greeted on one side by fellow players on the bench, and on the other by zealous fans charging onto the pitch.

For the first time in three years, the Big Green captured a share of the Ivy League title Saturday night by defeating the Brown University Bears 3-0, and by virtue of a tiebreaker atop the standings, a berth in the NCAA tournament as well.

Earlier in the day, Princeton University beat Yale University 1-0 to clinch a piece of the Ivy League title. Since Dartmouth beat Princeton in its Ivy League opener, however, the Big Green held the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Tigers. Dartmouth received an automatic bid to the NCAAs while Princeton must wait and hope for an at-large bid.

Dartmouth (11-4-2, 5-1-1 Ivy) started the match with energy and authority.

As part of a dominant opening half, the Big Green possessed the majority of the early offensive chances. The team developed its attacks particularly on the right flank, a tendency that continued throughout the first 45 minutes. Eventually, the cooperative movement on the right would come to fruition.

The first dangerous opportunity occurred in the 10th minute, as Stefan Defregger ’15 set up a run for Tyler Dowse ’18 on the right side inside the goalie box. As Alex Adelabu ’15 ran alongside his teammate in front of the goal, Dowse could not effectively deliver the ball to the team’s striker.

But the foundation had been set: this same combination, between Defregger, Dowse and Adelabu, would produce the first goal of the game two minutes later.

In a very similar offensive push on the 12th minute, Defregger fed Dowse the ball on the right flank. From outside the box, Dowse slid the ball to Adelabu who quickly poked the ball past the Brown goalkeeper in the right corner of the goal.

Head coach Chad Riley said he recognized the opportunities on the right side of the field, noting how an

Lindsay Ellis ’15 Editor-in-Chief

11. 17. 14

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Stephanie McFeeters ’15 Executive Editor

Blaze Joel ’15 Joe Clyne ’16

Sports Editors Tracy Wang ’15 Natalie Cantave ’16 Photography Editors

Carla Larin ’15 Publisher

Michael Riordan ’15 Executive Editor

KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The men’s soccer team scored early and often to secure a share of the Ivy League Championship with Princeton.

injury to a usual Brown starter in this area might have helped his team’s effort.

“I think we’ve done well there. We kind of saw that as a place to get after them,” Riley said. “They had the conviction just to go down that side and they did a great job.”

Playing in his last match on Burnham Field, Defregger acted as a centerpiece in the Big Green’s domination down the right flank, facilitating many of his team’s offensive pushes, through both connections with teammates and dangerous crosses across the face of the goal.

Despite jumping out to an early onegoal lead, the Big Green prolonged its offensive pressure, consisting of flank area combinations, crosses into the box and corner kicks.

“I think we gave them a couple of chances from not being quite tight enough in our defensive half, but I thought the way we handled [the early lead] was much better than [in other games],” Riley said. “It’s good to see that kind of growth through the season.”

Stefan Cleveland ’16 played an indispensable role in preserving his team’s lead.

The goalkeeper made his first key save on the 36th minute when a Big Green defender mistakenly cleared the ball to Brown senior forward Ben Maurey in the middle of the box.

As the opposing player fired with an unhindered look on frame, Cleveland leaped right, barely getting a hand on the ball.

No less than a minute later, the junior goalkeeper had to lunge to his left to stave off another dangerous strike.

“I was just doing my job, trying to make the saves and back up the defense,” Cleveland said. “I was able to see the ball pretty well, didn’t have any trouble reading it. It’s cold out here. It’s easy to make a mental error, sometimes they slip through, but I was called upon and fortunately was able to make the saves.”

As Cleveland protected the tenuous one-goal advantage and the game entered the second half of play, the Bears began to draw more level in terms of offensive opportunities. But, the Dartmouth defense — anchored

by Cleveland — remained resolute.

Dartmouth added critical insurance to pad its lead during the 67th minute.

A cross by Defregger created a scrum in front of the cage. After Nick Rooney ’15 got a head on the ball, it fell to Adelabu’s feet. With a clear opening on frame, the senior added another tally, placing the shot right inside the far right post.

“One of the things I’ve done all season is just following my shots,” he said. “It happened against Yale, and I did it against Central Connecticut as well. Tonight I just did the same thing, relaxed and took a good shot.”

An 80th-minute goal put the game beyond a doubt. A long pass found Adelabu around the edge of the box.

The striker left the ball for Tommy Johnson ’15 left of the frame, who fired

a shot that sneaked past Brown’s senior goalkeeper Mitch Kupstas.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better game,” Cleveland said. “We got an early goal, just like we wanted. We were able to sit on the ball, possess it, move it pretty well. Then when we got the second and third goals, we saw the end was near and then we just waited it out until we could celebrate now.”

Adelabu noted that although he and his team will relish this victory and share of the Ivy League crown, they are still hungry for more.

The 48-team NCAA Tournament kicks off on Thursday. The top 16 teams in the country receive byes, while the other 32 compete to reach the second round. Though the Big Green is unlikely to receive a bye, they do have a chance to host an opening round tournament game. The Big Green has not hosted an NCAA Tournament game since 2008. The matchups and locations will be revealed at 1 p.m. Monday on NCAA.com.

KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

A strong defensive effort secured a clean sheet for the men’s soccer team.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Football pulls away from Brown 44-21 B y brett drucker

The Dartmouth Senior Staff

In the final home game of the season, the Big Green football team came away with another convincing victory, defeating Brown University 44-21, to send its seniors off in style.

The Class of 2015 has now tallied 24 wins in its four years, the most at Dartmouth since the Class of 1999.

In the first half, the streak of five consecutive close Brown-Dartmouth contests looked set to continue, as Dartmouth (7-2, 5-1 Ivy) eked out a 17-14 lead. But the Big Green exploded in the second half for the overwhelming win.

The turning point came when Dartmouth forced an interception deep in Brown territory on the third play of the opening Brown drive.

Linebacker Will McNamara ’16 nabbed an errant pass over the middle at the Brown 28 and returned it all the way to the Brown nine-yard line.

McNamara, who leads the Ivy League in tackles per game, added another 10 stops on the afternoon as a centerpiece of the defense.

Four plays later, the Big Green capitalized on the mistake with the third touchdown connection of the day between quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 and wide receiver Ryan McManus ’15 on a jump ball in tight coverage. The touchdown gave the Big Green a 24-14 lead and put the momentum squarely in Dartmouth’s corner.

Williams led the charge for the Dartmouth offense on the afternoon, completing 25 of his 33 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns while adding another 100 yards on the ground.

McManus was his favorite target. The

senior caught a career-high 13 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns, the first time since 1989 that a Dartmouth receiver had three scores in a game.

Due to first-half injuries, Dartmouth was forced to go with its fourth-string running back — Ryder Stone ’18 — for much of the game. But the Big Green offense managed more than 500 yards of offense in the game and overwhelmed the visiting Bears in the second half.

“Adjust and improvise, that’s kind of a saying on the team,” head coach Buddy Teevens said in a post-game press conference. “Whatever happens, don’t worry about it. Adjust and improvise and move forward. They’re very, very resilient.”

Stone carried the ball 10 times for 114 yards and three touchdowns in his first major varsity action of the year.

“I had been told to be ready and I prepared like I have every other week,” he said at the press conference. “There’s always an opportunity that comes up and I wasn’t hesitant.”

After giving up touchdowns on the first two Bears drives, the Dartmouth defense settled down and limited Brown to only 302 total yards on the afternoon, with just 186 coming over the last three quarters. The defense pressured the Brown quarterbacks throughout the game with a series of crushing hits coming from defensive end Cody Fulleton ’16 as the opposing signal caller was attempting to throw.

“I thought our pass rush was outstanding,” Teevens said at the press conference.

“Cody was a man possessed out there.”

After Dartmouth went three-and-out on its first series of the afternoon, the Bears marched 75 yards on a methodical 5:59

drive that combined an effective passing and rushing attack, in addition to a mixed unit of players under center to take an early 7-0 lead.

Dartmouth struck back on the next drive, going 81 yards for a score thanks to seven completed passes, with five, including the 25yard touchdown strike, going to McManus.

McManus was wide open in the end zone following a devastating double cut that left the cornerback three steps behind.

The game appeared to shape up to be a shootout, with both teams scoring touchdowns on their next drive. A 28-yard completion on the far sideline set up Brown’s score, bringing the Bears into the red zone.

Dartmouth scored on the second WilliamsMcManus connection of the day, this time from 10 yards out, across the middle of the end zone.

The tide began to turn on Brown’s next drive when the Bears advanced to the Dartmouth eight, but failed on a fourth-down conversion to come away empty-handed for the first time in the game. The game remained scoreless for the rest of the quarter until Alex Gakenheimer ’17 drilled a 30-yard field goal to give Dartmouth a slight 17-14 lead at the half.

“It was just a matter of regrouping,” Teevens said in the press conference. “The fun thing with this group is that they don’t panic. They understand ‘Hey, we can’t do that, we’re better than that. Let’s settle in.’”

The second half was all Dartmouth, with the McNamara interception and McManus’s third touchdown pushing the Big Green to a strong 27-7 finish.

“Going into the second half, once we SEE FOOTBALL PAGE SW 4

Men’s hockey skates to 1-1 weekend

B y gayne kalustian The Dartmouth Staff

Dartmouth, after putting up just one goal in a 4-1 loss to Yale University in the first of two this weekend, came onto the ice with something to prove Saturday. The team, trying to shake last season’s reputation that it was either hot or not, took the 22-hour break to compose itself, find the chemistry it lacked the night before, and smack the visiting Brown University Bears with a 6-0 shutout, the first career shutout for James Kruger ’16.

“None of the guys were happy with [Friday’s game],” Kruger said. “We know we’re a really good team this year and can beat any team that we want to. We knew we wanted to come out, take it to them, and that’s what happened.”

Dartmouth (2-2-1, 2-2-1 ECAC) took the game to Brown (1-4-0, 0-4-0 ECAC) in every sense of the phrase. The Big Green put up an overwhelming 48 shots on Brown’s goaltenders.

Just after the puck drop, Dartmouth’s Rick Pinkston ’15 received a two-minute penalty for boarding. The Big Green responded with a penalty kill that set the tone.

The team killed the penalty and nearly col-

lected a short-handed goal. Geoff Ferguson ’16 closed the PK by dropping to the ice to block a shot near the end of Brown’s power play.

In those opening minutes, Dartmouth’s defense broke down what little offense Brown mustered, holding the game at 0-0 until Brad Schierhorn ’16 broke the tie scored a goal in the eighth minute. Just over five minutes later, Ryan Bullock ’16, freshly reinstated after a start-of-season injury, netted the Big Green’s second goal of the game from the blue line. Dartmouth then descended on Brown’s defensive zone.

Just as it has for much of the season, Dartmouth shook up its shifts, seeking, head coach Bob Gaudet said, the chemistry that will make it the most effective team on the ice. After being scratched the night before, Grant Opperman ’17 took the ice with alternate captain Eric Robinson ’14 in his shift. Being left of out the line up the night before was a “wake-up call,” Opperman said, making it clear that he needed to start producing for Dartmouth this season if he wanted to remain a fixture in the team’s line up.

Opperman answered the call, ringing in his 21st birthday with two goals. Opperman and Eric Neiley ’15, who played

on the same shift with his brother Kevin Neiley ’18 on Friday, each collected four points during the game.

Kruger stopped 23 shots to secure the shut out, despite a nerve-racking moment in the closing seconds when the Bears crashed the net before Dartmouth could clear the puck at the buzzer.

“The boys made it really easy on me,” Kruger said. “We dominated that game.

That’s every goalie’s dream. You get three goals for your team in the first period. They hit a pipe, and I got a little puck luck and was able to make a save or two, so that’s great. I think the other reason our defense was so good [Saturday night] is that our offense was so dominant. Forwards were keeping it in their zone and wearing down their defense. They had nothing the whole game.”

Also entering the rink on Saturday were bigger, more back-minded defensemen like Ferguson after smaller and quicker players River Rymsha ’18 and Josh Hartley ’17, who are more offensively-focused, were taken out of the lineup after the loss to Yale.

From an offensive standpoint, Dartmouth played two entirely different games SEE HOCKEY PAGE SW 4

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Football SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD YALE DARTMOUTH PRINCETON

6-0 5-1 5-1 4-2

9-0 8-1 7-2 5-4

BROWN PENN CORNELL COLUMBIA

2-4 1-5 1-5 0-6

4-5 1-8 1-8 0-9

Men’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

DARTMOUTH PRINCETON HARVARD CORNELL BROWN PENN COLUMBIA YALE

5-1-1 5-1-1 4-1-2 3-4-0 2-3-2 2-3-1 2-4-1 0-6-1

11-4-2 11-3-3 11-4-2 10-6-1 5-6-6 6-9-2 7-8-1 1-13-3

Women’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD DARTMOUTH YALE PENN PRINCETON COLUMBIA CORNELL BROWN

5-1-1 3-1-3 2-1-4 3-3-1 3-3-1 2-3-2 2-5-0 1-4-2

10-4-2 8-5-4 8-4-4 8-5-3 7-6-3 7-4-6 8-9-0 6-8-3

Volleyball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD YALE PRINCETON BROWN PENN DARTMOUTH COLUMBIA CORNELL

12-2 12-2 9-5 7-7 5-9 4-10 4-10 3-11

19-4 16-7 14-10 12-14 8-17 13-12 8-15 5-18

Field Hockey SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON COLUMBIA CORNELL HARVARD PENN DARTMOUTH BROWN YALE

6-1 5-2 5-2 4-3 3-4 3-4 1-6 1-6

7-10 12-5 11-5 10-7 8-9 5-12 9-8 3-14

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

ONE

ON

ONE

WITH LINDSEY ALLEN ’16

B y katie jarrett The Dartmouth Staff

This week, I sat down with Lindsey Allen ’16 of the No. 10 women’s hockey team before the team traveled to upstate New York to face St. Lawrence University and No. 7 Clarkson University. Before cooling off with two losses this weekend, the team had raced out to a 4-0-0 start, scoring 19 goals through four games.

Allen leads the Dartmouth women with six goals this season.

What are your thoughts on the team’s ranking?

LA: Initially we were like, ‘This is a big deal for us,’ but then we kind of thought, ‘Yes, we’re 10th, but we still have a long way to go.’ We’re not going to let this define us. We’re not going to stop there.

everything my older brother did. I’ve been playing since I was three or four.

What’s the hardest part of having a season as long as yours?

LA: The hardest part is just going for an extremely long period of time without much break. It’s like six days a week for about six or seven months. It’s September to February or March. That can get pretty tiring, but interim is the best time of the year.

It’s just hockey. We get two weeks to go home, but the rest we’re just here playing hockey and getting to know our teammates — it’s the best.

Do you or the team have any pregame rituals?

LA: We have a couple of pregame rituals. We’ve kind of mixed it up a lot this year because we realized a lot of the things we had been doing are tradition, but we didn’t know why What has personally helped they were tradition. After we warm you be so successful, especially up, we used to all get together and sing against St. Lawrence, the first this song, but we realized we didn’t time you had a hat trick? really know why. We’re all just singing LA: My linemates. It all starts with this song and don’t really know what them. I won’t take any credit by my- the lyrics mean so we switched that self. We all know to our winning where we’re go- “We were ranked ninth in song. After we ing to be, we’re the coaches poll for the win, we play it all comfortable sing it in the ECAC. I’m looking forward and with each other. dressing room. to showing people that is We also have this What are the not where we deserve to soccer ball we team’s goals be and just being at the pass around the for the season? top of the list and to have room and each LA: The big people say, ‘Whoa, where person says two ones that are did Dartmouth come to three things there every year from? Who are these you want to work are winning Ivies on that game. It’s kids?’” and being ECAC a good way to Champions and start focusing on then the national - lindsey allen ’16 what you want to championships. do. There are a But, on a lower lot of us on the scale, we have our “KPIs,” which team, so I really focus on my linemates are our key performance indicators. and what they’re saying so I can try There are seven of them, and you try to help them with what they want to to win those every game. It’s things work on in the game. like face-off percentage, shots on net and first goal of the game.

Over the interim, do you do any special events as a team?

What are you looking forward LA: We try to do a lot of team bondto most for this season? ing. We used to go bowling, have team LA: We were ranked ninth in the dinners, team movies, water pong coaches poll for the ECAC. I’m tournaments, we’ll have some team looking forward to showing people party things where we’ll build ginthat is not where we deserve to be gerbread houses and stuff like that. and just being at the top of the list and to have people say, ‘Whoa, where Is there a professional team or did Dartmouth come from? Who are player you’re a big fan of ? these kids?’ A lot of us are kind of LA: Growing up in Toronto, I’ve no-names coming into school, but always been a [Toronto Maple] Leafs now we’re making our names known. fan. My favorite players growing up were Darcy Tucker and Curtis How did you start playing Joseph. hockey?

LA: Being from Canada it was kind This interview has been edited and of how it happened. I wanted to do condensed.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Football stays alive for Ivy championship FROM FOOTBALL PAGE SW 3

made a few plays, you felt the momentum shift in our direction, and it kind of snowballed,” McManus said at the press conference.

Stone shouldered much of the load for the Dartmouth offense in the second half, tallying all 114 of his rushing yards and all three of his scores after the break.

The defense allowed only 122 yards of offense in the second half. Brown managed to get into Dartmouth territory only twice and coughed up an interception and a fumble.

While running down the clock in the fourth quarter, Stone had one more highlight play — a 63-yard rushing touchdown to give Dartmouth a 44-14 lead that put the game out of reach.

“I just saw inside zone and it opened right up,” he said at the press conference.

“We had great blocking. I saw the tight end game come across and hit it hard and didn’t look back.”

Because of the gap the Big Green opened up in the second half, Teevens worked in seniors who had never accumulated much playing time, noting

that players on the bench pushed the coaches to get their upperclassmen teammates in the game.

“They respect what these guys have done,” Teevens said at the press conference. “Most of these guys have been scout team players for most of their career, but Dartmouth football means

a lot to them and they mean a lot to us.”

The Big Green will finish the season on the road next weekend looking to earn a share of the Ivy League title with a victory over Princeton University and a Harvard University loss against Yale University. It would be Dartmouth’s first title since 1996.

TRACY WANG/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Dalyn Williams ’16 rushed toward the end zone in the football team’s 44-21 win.

Big Green puts up six versus Brown FROM HOCKEY PAGE SW 3

over the weekend. The team played aggressively on Friday and could have scored more goals than it ultimately did, Gaudet said. Overall, though, the team could not connect at the top and relied on crashing the net rather than setting up players on the point or across the ice like it did on Saturday.

The home opener loss to Yale was

sealed on special teams. The Bulldogs went 2-5 with the man advantage while the Big Green was held to 0-4 on the evening.

Yale raced out to a 2-0 lead before Charlie Mosey ’15 put the Big Green on the board with a tip-in goal midway through the second period. But just 40 seconds later, Yale’s first powerplay goal of the evening widened the advantage to two. A Yale goal at 11:28 in the third sealed the game for the

visitors, who outshot the Big Green 30-27 in the game.

The team has seen mixed results with equally mixed pairings and lines thus far. The Big Green next takes the ice against Harvard University on Tuesday after tying the Crimson 3-3 in its season opener. The Crimson is the only team in the ECAC still 100 percent for penalty kills.

Tuesday’s game against Harvard begins at 7 p.m. in Thompson Arena.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: SCORING IN BUNCHES

JEFFREY LEE/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The men’s hockey team found the back of the net six times in a win over Brown on Saturday.