The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 10/19/15

10.19. 15

FOOTBALL BEATS CCSU TO STAY UNDEFEATED

WOMEN’S RUGBY HOLDS ON AGAINST HARVARD

WOMEN’S HOCKEY TAKES DOWN MCGILL WEIJIA TANG, ELIZA MCDONOUGH, SEAMORE ZHU/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

BY THE Dartmouth blows out Central Connecticut State NUMBERS

44 Yard touchdown pass on first offensive play

443 Yards of total offense for football

4 Straight Ivy League wins for women’s rugby

15.9 Seconds on clock when women’s hockey scored its game-winner

B y Alexander AGADJANIAN The Dartmouth Staff

Playing in its final out-ofconference game, the football team extended its undefeated streak to five and achieved its strongest start to a season since 1997 at Central Connecticut State University on Saturday. While not playing to its greatest capacity, the Big Green (5-0, 2-0 Ivy) built a lead early and pulled away late en route to a 34-7 victory over the Blue Devils (2-5), marking only the fourth time since adopting a 10-game schedule in 1980 that Dartmouth swept through its non-conference slate in a season.

Though non-conference games do not count toward the Ivy League title, the team still had high energy for the game, Victor Williams ’16 said.

“You have to attack it as if it’s just another game,” Williams said.

“We want to be perfect, and we want to be undefeated, and for that, every game counts the same.”

The Big Green got off to a quick start, and Dartmouth never trailed in the matchup. After the Dartmouth defense yielded just two yards and forced Central Connecticut into a three-andout on the game’s opening drive, quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 resumed where he left off last Saturday against Yale University.

On the first offensive play from scrimmage, Williams launched a 44-yard pass down the left sideline that found Jon Marc Carrier ’17 in stride for the easy touchdown, just over a minute into the game.

“Coming in, we wanted to take a shot and be aggressive on offense,” Carrier said. “I was in the slot, and Victor Williams was on the outside.

We ran two seam routes and with Victor [Williams] playing so well the last two weeks, the [defensive backs] sort of keyed on him.”

Even before the play, the offense had a good feeling about the opening results of the drive, Carrier said.

“Dalyn [Williams] looked

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

10. 12. 15

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

at me before the play and said, ‘Touchdown,’ and I just nodded my head,” Carrier said.

For the remainder of the quarter, however, the Big Green offense could not reproduce its early proficiency. While the defense forced three-and-outs on three of four CCSU possessions and allowed just one non-penalty first down, Dartmouth — apart from its touchdown throw — managed less than 50 yards through the first 15 minutes.

Much of this resulted from the Blue Devils throwing off Dartmouth’s offensive rhythm early on.

Constant blitzes and quarterback pressure prevented adequate time to stand in the pocket for Williams, who had to scramble in the backfield more often than usual as a result, and got brought down twice in the half. On the team’s second possession, Williams fired a pass to the left corner of the end zone but got picked off by cornerback Brandon Hollomon. For the first time this season and in 238 attempts dating back to last year, Williams threw an interception.

On top of this, five first-half penalties for 45 yards — one of which the defense committed and most of which came in the first quarter — played as much a role in deterring early offensive progress.

With both teams mired in uneven play into the second quarter, the Big Green defense provided a crucial jolt to the game’s flow as it often has this season. After a failed fourth down conversion by the Big Green inside opposing territory, Blue Devil quarterback Tavion Pauldo wildly underthrew a long pass route down the middle, as Dartmouth safety David Caldwell ’16 picked off the throw and returned the ball 26 yards to the CCSU 36-yard line. Logging in

WEIJIA TANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Dalyn Williams ’16 threw a touchdown pass on Dartmouth’s first offensive play.

his sixth forced turnover on the year, Caldwell has now averaged more than a turnover a game and notched one in each of his team’s contests.

Short but effective pickups followed on offense as Dartmouth swiftly covered the short field and positioned itself within striking distance. On first and goal from the eight-yard line, Williams rolled out to his right and fired across his body to Cameron Skaff ’18 for the touchdown and a 14-point lead.

“That’s a play we had been working on in practice and we got to bring it in,” Dalyn Williams said.

“It was a simple boot pass with a built-in throwback. I got out wide, saw their corner lured in and their safety was out of position. I just put it where only the tight end could

get in and Cameron [Skaff] made a great catch.”

In what would ultimately become its best drive of the entire game, Central Connecticut found offensive success on its next possession. Gaining 40 yards on the ground and 55 in total across a stretch of 3:39, the Blue Devils could not capitalize, however, and remained scoreless after a 33-yard missed field goal.

Instead, it would be left to the home team’s defense to put CCSU on the board. A few drives later after a punt pinned Dartmouth at its own one-yard line, the worst possible outcome occurred. Running back Kyle Bramble ’16 received the first down handoff but got swung down in the backfield — which in this case was the end zone — and

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

Joe Clyne ’16 Henry Arndt ’16 Sports Editors

Kate Herrington ’17 Photography Editor

WEIJIA TANG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Dartmouth defense put forward another stellar performance, denying the Blue Devils’ offense any points on Saturday.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

University 34-7 to remain undefeated coughed up the ball, as Blue Devil Carlton Nash recovered the fumble to cut into Dartmouth’s lead 14-7.

By halftime, despite being the only side to show competence offensively, Dartmouth had allowed a weaker opponent to stay close. The Big Green held a decisive 191-122 edge in total yards, as Dalyn Williams had already thrown for 146 yards and two touchdowns off 12-19 passing, with Victor Williams — with five catches for 79 yards — representing the primary target. The stats unquestionably pointed to Dartmouth as the better team, and that edge would soon manifest in more points.

Two lengthy but strong offensive drives opened things up for the Big Green in the second half. On the first possession, an effective pass-run mix moved the ball 63 yards in five minutes for the team. Despite culminating in a missed field goal, the offense had demonstrated important strides in puncturing through the CCSU defense.

During its next offensive drive, Dartmouth methodically worked its way downfield from its own 44-yard line, capped by a one-yard run from Ryder Stone ’18 as the visitors reclaimed a two-touchdown lead.

Two drives later, Dartmouth further separated itself. After a poor Blue

Devil punt returned the ball to the Big Green at the opposing 23-yard line, Dalyn Williams weaved his way on a run to the one-yard line on the next play. Getting jammed at the line by a strong CCSU defensive front twice, Stone finally punched the ball into the end zone on his third attempt

“Dalyn [Williams ’16] looked at me before the play and said, ‘Touchdown,’ and I just nodded my head.”

-Jon MARC CARRIER ’17 and notched his second score on the day. A missed extra point ensued, but Dartmouth had accumulated a 27-7 advantage early in the fourth quarter.

The scoring concluded later in the final quarter when, after a 35-yard strike to Ryan McManus ’15, Williams found Skaff alone in the end zone for a three-yard touchdown. The easy catch marked the fourth time that the quarterback and tight end connected

for a score over the last two games.

For Williams, the day ended with 249 yards in the air, three touchdowns and a pick, as well as 60 yards on the ground.

Three different receivers totaled over 50 yards, as Victor Williams led the way with 95.

As stout and opportunistic as ever, the Dartmouth defense enjoyed yet another excellent performance on Saturday afternoon. The unit yielded just 225 yards on a 3.8 yards-per-play average, in addition to grabbing two picks — a late third quarter one by Will McNamara ’16 in addition to Caldwell’s — and recording four sacks.

Out of CCSU’s 14 total possessions on the day, five ended on three-and-outs, two on turnovers and one because of the halftime whistle, meaning only a handful of Blue Devil drives lasted more than three plays. Three of these came when Dartmouth already had a three-touchdown lead.

“The entire defensive line played really well,” Vernon Harris ’16 said.

“They just made it easier for the whole defense by stopping the run and getting a good pass rush.”

The Big Green next takes the field on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Columbia University. The Lions are 1-4 on the season thus far and winless in the Ivy League.

Women’s rugby beats Harvard 20-15

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Football SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD DARTMOUTH PRINCETON YALE BROWN PENN COLUMBIA CORNELL

2-0 2-0 1-1 1-1 1-1 1-1 0-2 0-2

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

Women’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON HARVARD CORNELL COLUMBIA YALE PENN DARTMOUTH BROWN

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

11-3 7-6-1 9-1-4 5-7-1 4-6-2 5-3-5 7-3-3 4-7-2

Men’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

DARTMOUTH HARVARD COLUMBIA BROWN PENN CORNELL PRINCETON YALE

3-0 3-0 2-1 1-1-1 1-2 1-2 0-2-1 0-3

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

Field Hockey

SEAMORE ZHU/THE DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth led its game against Harvard by 15 at the 58-minute mark, but the Crimson clawed back late to lose by just a single try.

B y matt yuen The Dartmouth

In its fifth game of the season, Dartmouth’s women’s rugby team (4-1, 4-0 Ivy) remained undefeated in the Ivy League with its victory over Harvard University (3-2, 2-2 Ivy) at Brophy Field.

“I am really happy about being 4-0 in the Ivy League,” head coach Katie Dowty said. “Always more to improve, but I’m definitely happy about how things are starting to be put together.”

Dartmouth sprinted out of the gates in the first half, putting 10 points on the board before Harvard showed signs of life. Morgan McGonagle ’18 scored the first points of the game by converting a try 15 minutes in. Seven minutes later, Yejadai Dunn ’16 doubled up the Big Green’s lead with a successful try of her own. Down 10-0, the Crimson responded with a try just over two minutes before the end of the first half to cut Dartmouth’s lead to five.

The Big Green began the second

half with another pair of tries. Alex Stendahl ’19 caught fire, scoring a try in the 46th minute and then another in the 58th minute to give Dartmouth a 15-point lead over Harvard, the largest lead of the match.

Harvard responded with a pair of tries of its own. The Crimson scored twice within a five-minute span to cut Dartmouth’s lead back to five with just over 20 minutes left to play.

SEE RUGBY SW PAGE 4

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON PENN CORNELL HARVARD COLUMBIA BROWN DARTMOUTH YALE

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

7-5 10-2 8-4 7-5 8-5 6-7 5-7 2-10

Volleyball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

DARTMOUTH HARVARD YALE PENN BROWN PRINCETON COLUMBIA CORNELL

6-1 5-2 5-2 3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4 0-7

9-7 9-8 10-6 9-10 9-10 8-8 5-11 4-13

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

Women’s hockey beats McGill with last-minute goal

B y sam stockton The Dartmouth

A power play goal with 15.9 seconds remaining by captain Laura Stacey ’16 propelled the women’s hockey team to a thrilling exhibition victory in its season opener against McGill University. The Big Green outshot the Martlets 27-19 on its way to a 2-1 victory.

“In the beginning of the game, we did a good job of coming out with some energy,” head coach Mark Hudak said. “We played very aggressively, and we played with some confidence. Then at the end of the game, we played with energy, and we played with some discipline.”

The Big Green opened the game playing an aggressive “two-in” forecheck with two forwards pursuing every puck in the offensive zone.

This forecheck put tremendous pressure on the Martlets’ defense, which struggled to break out of McGill’s zone cleanly for the entire first period. For the Big Green, however, that aggressive forecheck coincided with a series of early penalties.

“There were a ton of penalty

kills early on, which kind of took the momentum away from us, but we were able to kill them really well,” Stacey said. “We denied a lot of entries, which made it a lot easier for our D[efense] and our forwards to get the puck out. We made it really difficult for them to set up where the wanted to be, and we took away time and space.”

With aggressive and efficient penalty killing, the Big Green prevented McGill from capitalizing on its three first-period power plays.

On the third of those power plays, Devon Moir ’17 pounced on a loose puck and generated a short-handed breakaway. Charging toward the net, Moir was hooked from behind by McGill defenseman Emily Davies and awarded a penalty shot. Moir came in quickly before firing the puck through McGill goaltender Taylor Hough’s five hole.

“I’ve gone against [Moir] a couple times in the shootout in practice, so I kind of know her moves,” Dartmouth netminder Robyn Chemago ’17 said. “She faked a shot, and the goalie bit but had a really good seal on the ice.

SEAMORE ZHU/THE DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth successfully killed three McGill penalties in the first period of play.

[Moir] got her to open up the five hole enough to get it in. I thought for a while that she didn’t score. She came in with a lot of speed, and that’s how you get goalies to bite.”

In the second period, the Big Green transitioned from the aggressive two-in forecheck they employed in the first frame to a 1-2-2. “[The 1-2-2 strategy] seems more passive, but it’s really not,” Hudak said. “I think when we did that, we were struggling a little bit in terms of our positioning. It forces you to be a little more disciplined, and it took us a little while to adjust to it, but I thought we ended up doing a good job.”

As the Big Green adjusted to its shift in forechecking approach, the Martlets took advantage with a goal by McGill right wing Pamela Psihogios, assisted by Kelsie Moffatt.

The Martlets generated traffic in front of goalie Shannon Ropp ’19, who spent the second period in net, before Moffatt sent a cross-ice pass to Psihogios, who managed to send the puck past Ropp.

Hudak gave each of his three goaltenders a period of play in the exhibition match-up and was happy with the result, he said. Chemago started, Ropp played the second period and Christie Honor ’19 closed the game, earning the win.

“I though all three of our goalies played really well,” Hudak said.

Each Dartmouth goalie made six saves, with Ropp surrendering McGill’s lone goal.

When asked about the play of her freshmen back-ups, Chemago’s face lit up.

“They were awesome — they did so well,” Chemago said. “I was really proud of them. Two really great girls, and they work really hard. I think that shows in how they did.

Everyone trusted them.”

The game’s pivotal sequence came with under a minute to play.

SEAMORE ZHU/THE DARTMOUTH

With less than 20 seconds to play, Laura Stacey ’16 netted a game-winning goal.

McGill winger Psihogios — who tallied the Martlets only goal — was whistled for hooking at the 19:31 mark of the third period. Hudak called his only timeout in anticipation of the coming Big Green power play.

“It was nothing special — we wanted to give our girls a little rest, and we wanted to make sure our power play unit knew what we wanted to do off the draw,” Hudak said.

On the second face-off of the ensuing power play, Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 won the puck back to Eleni Tebano ’17, who fed a pass across the ice to Stacey. Stacey one-timed a slap shot through netfront traffic and past Hough for the game-winning goal.

“We knew we had a power play, and that’s really exciting when there’s not a lot of time left in a tie game,” Stacey said. “When we had a draw and [Ottenbreit] won it back, I knew this was it. They kind of parted the sea there, and I wound up just hoping that my teammates

could get in front of the net, screen the goalie and take away her eyes, which they did. There were so many people in front, I just tried to get it on net and, fortunately enough, it hit the back of the net.”

The goal, coming with just under 16 seconds to play, ended the Martlets hopes of leaving Thompson Arena with a victory.

Despite the win, Hudak said that his team has plenty to correct in anticipation of its regular season opener against Harvard University.

“I think our support players have to do a better job of supporting both defensively and offensively,” Hudak said. “I think we need to value the puck a little more. It almost felt like we were a little lackadaisical with the puck at times, not really wanting to possess it as much as we could have.”

Despite these foibles, the Big Green will enter the season feeling optimistic on the heels of a stirring, last-second victory over McGill.

Dartmouth will return to action in Thompson Arena on Friday, Oct. 23, against Harvard.

Rugby holds on to beat Harvard in tight Ivy League battle FROM RUGBY SW PAGE 3

“It was a really, really tough game,” Tatjana Toeldte ’16 said.

“Harvard was really strong at running, and we had some trouble getting them down on the tackle.

We spent a lot of time on defense today — that’s a tough game to play.”

Dartmouth’s hard work paid off as the Big Green managed to shut down the Crimson’s comeback in the second half. In the last few minutes of the game, Harvard brought out a strong offensive game-plan and pushed the Big Green back to its try zone. Harvard was very close to tying the game in the last

few moments, but its comeback bid fell short as they had the ball knocked forward. The Crimson lost possession of the ball late, giving Dartmouth the win.

“We had some moments of real brilliance,” Dowty said. “The first order of business was definitely beating Harvard. Proud of the girls for doing that, but I think the 16th man today really helped us.

The audience and the alums on the sideline definitely upped the energy for us out on the field.”

Many of the alumnae of the women’s rugby program returned to Brophy Field this week to honor the retirement of Dartmouth’s previous head coach, Debra Ar-

chambault ’85. Archambault was brought out to the field during halftime and welcomed with a standing ovation from the whole crowd and rugby team. Archambault was an integral part of Dartmouth women’s rugby for 30 years and helped develop and advance the program to what it is today.

“This was an incredible game to play with all of our alums here,” Toeldte said. “It’s so cool to have so many people who have been part of the history of this program out here supporting us. It was an incredible atmosphere.”

The Big Green played a much more disciplined game against Harvard than it did against Prince-

ton University last weekend. In last week’s game, many of Dartmouth’s players were frustrated at how disorganized the game was. This week’s game, however, marked an improvement, as Dartmouth enjoyed more success in the scrums.

“We definitely dominated our scrums, I would say,” Dunn said.

“It’s nice to get the ball back nice and secure because it’s a great platform to work off of. The team worked hard I’m so proud of them.”

Overall, the scoreline is indicative of a game that was hard fought and played tight throughout.

“Harvard came out hard, and we came out hard,” Dunn said. “It

was a good tough fight. That’s why I love playing Harvard. It’s always a good fight.”

As a result, the team was very pleased to see that its hard work had paid off, but the road does not end here for the women’s rugby team.

“This victory is a really big drive to keep pushing ourselves to keep improving and to keep winning hard games,” Toeldte said.

“There’s no rest.”

Up until this point, Dartmouth had three consecutive weekends with conference matchups. The team will get a weekend of rest before they take on Yale University on Oct. 31.