The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 11/16/15

11.16. 15

FOOTBALL BEATS BROWN, KEEPS IVY HOPES ALIVE

WOMEN’S HOCKEY SWEEPS WEEKEND SLATE ELIZA MCDONOUGH, ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

13 Turnovers in football game against Brown

1 Ivy League loss in season for men’s soccer

79 Shots by women’s hockey in two weekend games

171 Rushing yards for the three Big Green running backs

Dartmouth takes down Brown 34-18, back in B y ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN The Dartmouth Staff

Playing in windy, frigid and generally disorienting conditions on an unusual grass surface in Providence, Rhode Island, the football team faced several obstacles on Saturday that detracted from its typically efficient and stable character. Nevertheless, the No. 23 Big Green (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) grew an early lead and finished with a 34-18 defeat of Brown University (4-5, 2-4 Ivy), emerging from a sloppy game that contained 13 combined turnovers, four failed extra point attempts and uncharacteristically poor passing performances by both teams.

Ostensibly, there was hardly anything special about Dartmouth’s victory, beyond it being the Big Green’s eighth on the year. At the same time 41 miles north, though, the lucky break that Dartmouth had yearned for was materializing in the same place it had last suffered a defeat. Ever since a crushing lastminute loss at Harvard University three weeks ago — a seemingly season-defining moment — the Big Green was left to only hope for a victory from one of the Crimson’s three final opponents for a shot at the Ivy League crown.

As last Saturday afternoon progressed, the University of Pennsylvania — cruising into Harvard on a four-game win streak — had the Crimson on its heels early, jumping out to a 21-6 lead after a quarter of play. Though the Crimson grabbed a lead by halftime, the Quakers sprung back ahead in the final half to go ahead 35-25 and ultimately win the game, snapping Harvard’s 22-game win streak and undefeated conference record.

The responses vary depending on which player or coach you ask, but Dartmouth — for almost the entirety of its game — had no knowledge of the monumental events developing in Cambridge, Massachussetts.

Cornerback Vernon Harris ’16 said he had no idea until there were only about 10 seconds left in the game when the team was taking a

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

11. 16. 15

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Bears and the Big Green combined to turn the ball over a whopping 13 times in Saturday afternoon’s game.

knee and someone mentioned the Crimson results.

“I didn’t know until the crowd started cheering,” running back Brian Grove ’16 added.

Head coach Buddy Teevens — who had positioned the team’s 2015 season to be its strongest possibly in decades — intentionally wanted to tune out anything unrelated to the match at hand.

“I had no idea, I just was oblivious to it,” Teevens said about Harvard’s loss. “I just [thought], ‘Hey, can we win this game?’ the way things were going [with the turnovers]. I’d rather not know [the other score]. The birth of our children — I didn’t want to know.

I just wanted to count parts when they came out.”

As the final seconds on Saturday ticked away and the Big Green players came together to sing their alma

mater as they do after every game, the team — before it could finish — erupted into unbridled jubilation, which followed them as they headed back to the locker room and almost certainly continued on their ride back to Hanover. Needing only a win against Princeton University (5-4, 2-4 Ivy) next week in its home finale, Dartmouth — now tied atop the conference standings with Penn and Harvard — will have a renewed opportunity to win at least a share of the Ivy League championship, its first since 1996.

“It was fun just to see the enthusiasm of the stands and also of my players,” Teevens said. “It was nuts in the locker room after. As hard as they’ve worked for as long as they’ve worked... We’ve played well, and to have a second chance is really special. It doesn’t happen in life too often.”

Harris, a key part of the team’s defensive secondary, also happened to have the game’s first big play, opening the turnover floodgates. On Brown’s first play from scrimmage, a trick play had Bears quarterback Marcus Fuller throw a pass to the right sideline to receiver Alex Jette, who then fired a misplaced ball that Harris easily snatched up for the interception.

“It was very surreal,” Harris said. “We went out there and played our best, and in the end we got a stroke of luck.”

After forcing a three-and-out on the Bears’ next possession, the Dartmouth defense resumed its turnover-inducing ways in Brown’s third possession. Poised to be Brown’s best offensive play at the time, Bears running back Johnny Pena found an opening up the middle but Big Green linebacker

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

Joe Clyne ’16 Henry Arndt ’16 Sports Editors

Eliza McDonough ’18 Photography Editor

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

On its first play from scrimmage of the game, Brown called a trick play that led to an interception by Vernon Harris ’16.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

Ivy League title hunt after Harvard loses

ALEXANDER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Thanks to a long kickoff return by Ryder Stone ’18, Dartmouth led by 15 points at the half.

Lucas Bavaro ’17 forced the ball out on a crunching hit, recovered by teammate Zach Slafsky ’16.

On the other side of the football, Dartmouth’s normally stout passing attack struggled to come into form.

Quarterback Dalyn Williams ’16 had a clear disconnect with his receivers — possibly hampered by the wind — with four early incompletions on his first four pass attempts and fumbled the ball on a sack that he was able to recoup.

Yet in a parallel pattern to the prior week and to a greater degree, the threepronged Big Green run game thrived early on and throughout Saturday afternoon. The sack ended a drive in which Kyle Bramble ’16 ripped off powerful runs of 13 and 19 yards. In the first play of Dartmouth’s next possession immediately following a Brown turnover, Brian Grove burst through a gaping hole up the middle untouched and then sped down the left sideline for 61 yards and the opening score.

Adding to an already electric sequence of events for Dartmouth, Brown fumbled the football on the ensuing kickoff, gifting Dartmouth the ball back at Brown’s 19-yard line. Ryder Stone ’18 — the final piece of the Big Green’s rushing triumvirate — led the offense in covering the short field, needing only three carries to foster a 14-0 Dartmouth lead, capped by an easy nine-yard touchdown run with three minutes left to play in the first quarter.

The stream of opening quarter turnovers did not end there. After throwing for a first down to commence Brown’s next drive, Bears quarterback Fuller fired a pass to the right sideline that got batted into the air, and Harris was able to track it down for his second pick of the game, returning the ball inside Brown’s 25.

With four giveaways in the first 14 minutes of the game by the Bears, the game’s volatile nature then punished the visitors. After a screen play went for 23 yards, Williams flung a pass too high for

Ryan McManus ’15, which was tipped in the air and brought down by Brown’s Quintin Rizek in the end zone.

On its second drive of the second quarter, Brown moved the ball well and strung together a series of first down conversions. Brought in to bolster the running game, backup Bears quarterback Kyle Moreno quickly covered 30 yards on the ground to enter Dartmouth territory. Brown running back Seth Rosenbauer pummeled his way for a five-yard score two minutes before the first half ’s conclusion. A.J. Zuttah ’16, however, blocked the Bears extra point attempt to keep Dartmouth’s lead at 14-6.

The Big Green offense did not have to step on the field before Dartmouth struck back. Scoring his second allpurpose touchdown on the day, Stone weaved his way through Brown’s kickoff coverage and sprinted down the left sideline for an 89-yard kickoff return touchdown to give Dartmouth a 15-point lead heading into the break.

Seconds before halftime, Brown received a chance to put more points on the scoreboard after pouncing on a McManus fumble off a punt return.

In what was symbolic for the half and the entire game, the Bears failed to capitalize on the opportunity, missing on a pass attempt and then sending a field goal attempt wide right.

Starting the second half with the ball, Brown prolonged its troublesome habits. After netting a first down, Rosenbauer took a short pass for 18 yards before dropping the ball that Will Konstant ’16 fell on at Brown’s 42-yard line. A few plays later on offense facing a fourth and 20, Williams perfectly fitted a pass down the middle to Houston Brown ’17 for the 24-yard touchdown.

A bobbled extra point hold left the score at 27-6.

Keeping with the spirit of the game, both sides then traded interceptions, notably Williams’ second on the day.

Soon after, Bramble added a score of his own on the ground after catching and running for 37 yards, culminating with a two-yard touchdown rush, as Dartmouth pulled ahead for its greatest lead of the game at 34-6.

A last gasp push by the home team made the score line closer as the fourth quarter wound down, taking advantage of multiple Big Green miscues.

Following an interception by Bavaro, Dartmouth turned the ball over in three of its final four possessions of the game, composed of an intercepted Williams pass batted up at the line of scrimmage, a botched handoff to Stone who got credited for the mistake and a bobbled snap that fell back into the end zone recovered by Brown for the touchdown. The frequent turnarounds opened up the game for two late Brown touchdowns, but the Bears missed the extra point on each, and the score still stood at 34-18.

For the second straight game, the Dartmouth running game excelled in the process of contributing three touchdowns, with Grove and Bramble each reaching at least 90 yards. Instrumental to this effort, the offensive line paved the way in creating numerous, advantageous running lanes for the backs.

“With the wind as well, we just thought let’s be somewhat conservative with it,” Teevens said. “We thought the matchups would be good. We saw a lot of pressure, and it was kind of hit or miss. They got a couple, and also we popped a few as well. When you play against that type of defensive approach, that’s going to happen.”

On the other hand, the air attack had one of its poorest showings of the year, though its out-of-sync quality had little bearing on the result in the end.

Williams went 11-22 for 110 yards and a career-high three interceptions on the afternoon along with getting sacked three times. Understandably, the windy atmosphere played a significant factor in this aspect of the offense.

“It was a heavy wind, so half the game you’re throwing against [it],” Teevens said. “Couple that with the grass, we were not used to the grass situation…

It’s just different. We had a couple of slips, could have been completions, but the ball sailed a little bit. It was tough on both sides, the ball would take off on you.”

In addition to those three picks, Dartmouth also lost another three fumbles, making for an erratic flow to the game.

“It was weird,” Teevens said. “It happened so frequently and so unexpectedly. We’re very secure with the ball, and to have three turnovers and they’re all exchange-generated — snap [or] handoff — we just haven’t done that.

We don’t throw interceptions either, and we threw [three] of them today. It just kept happening.”

The Big Green will now head home and close out the 2015 season this Saturday against Princeton at 12 p.m., with a chance at a three-way split of the Ivy League crown.

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Football SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD DARTMOUTH PENN YALE PRINCETON BROWN COLUMBIA CORNELL

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

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

Women’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON HARVARD BROWN COLUMBIA PENN CORNELL DARTMOUTH YALE

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

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

Men’s Soccer SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

DARTMOUTH HARVARD BROWN COLUMBIA PRINCETON CORNELL PENN YALE

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

11-5-1 9-6-2 10-5-2 10-5-1 10-5-2 4-12-1 3-11-2 1-14-1

Field Hockey SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON PENN CORNELL HARVARD COLUMBIA DARTMOUTH BROWN YALE

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

10-6 13-3 11-6 9-8 9-8 7-10 7-10 3-14

Volleyball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON HARVARD YALE DARTMOUTH PENN COLUMBIA BROWN CORNELL

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

15-8 14-10 14-9 12-11 13-13 7-16 10-16 6-18

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

SPORTS

Women’s hockey sweeps weekend B y SAM STOCKTON

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015

MONDAY LINEUP

ONE ON ONE

WITH COACH PAUL CORMIER

The Dartmouth Staff

The women’s hockey team recorded a pair of shutout victories this weekend, knocking off Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 4-0 on Friday and Union College 2-0 on Saturday, to improve its record to 4-2-2 overall and 4-1-2 in conference play.

In Friday night’s match-up, Lindsey Allen ’16 opened the scoring with just under three minutes left to play in the first period, deflecting an Eleni Tebano ’17 slap shot from the top of the circle past Engineers goaltender Lovisa Selander on a power play. The Big Green added a shorthanded goal in the second when Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 found herself on a two-on-one breakaway supported by Brooke Ahbe ’18. Ottenbreit wristed a shot past Selander to double the lead for her fourth goal of the young season, extending her point streak to seven games. Ailish Forfar ’16 and Ahbe each registered a tally in the third, and the Big Green completed the shutout, outshooting the Engineers 39-21.

“A big thing we really focused on this weekend was winning our battles and moving our feet constantly and just driving, driving, driving,” Laura Stacey ’16 said. “Both these teams have really good goalies, and if we were going to score we needed to get pucks to the net and people to the net. That’s something we did really well.”

The Big Green carried the momentum generated from the victory over RPI into its Saturday afternoon contest with the winless Dutchwomen. From the start, Dartmouth controlled the pace of play, kept the puck in the Union end and registered shot after shot. Despite outshooting the Dutchwomen 13-1 in the first period, though, the Big Green failed to find the back of the net early.

“Union plays tough, gritty hockey,” head coach Mark Hudak said. “They play good defense and really take away your ability to attack the net, so it’s hard to score against them.”

Coming out with such a strong offensive performance that proved unable to find put the team on the scoreboard in the first period may have been frustrating for the team in the early minutes of the match, but Hudak said a key to maintaining control over the match was keeping a level head and sticking to the plan that the team knew to execute.

“A couple times we got a little frustrated and tried to do a little too much, but at the same time, we didn’t deviate from the game plan,” he said. “It’s really easy to deviate from the game plan

B y MAX KANEFIELD The Dartmouth

ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The Big Green shut out both of its ECAC opponents this weekend at home.

when you’re frustrated, and I thought we did a really good job of sticking with it, working to get shots and trusting what we were doing.”

The standoff would not last long after the puck dropped in the second period, though, and 32 seconds in, Dartmouth finally broke through Union’s gritty defense. For the second consecutive night, Allen notched the game’s first goal, this time a tally that was assisted by Tebano and Stacey. Allen said Tebano took a shot that ended up hitting her, and she simply turned and fired the puck into the net.

“We had a lot of people in front of the net, and I don’t think the goalie was able to see it,” Allen said. “There was a scramble of people, and [the puck] managed to make it through everybody.”

For the rest of the period, the Big Green continued to pepper Union netminder Melissa Black with shots, posting another impressive shot-advantage over the Dutchwomen, outshooting them 17-3 in the second period. Black managed 16 saves in the period, though, ridding the Big Green of any opportunities to post another point in the period.

Allen said the lack of more goals in the second was frustrating, although the fact that the Dutchwomen were unable to put themselves on the board made it easier for the team to keep going. She said that although the team only got two goals on 40 shots, the team can be happier about the results since they didn’t allow any goals into their own net.

Throughout the second period, the Big Green endured a series of near misses. First, a shot from Stacey sailed just wide of an open net following a deflection. Then, Catherine Berghuis ’16 split a pair of Union defenders to just miss depositing her own rebound

in the back of the net with a little over four minutes to play in the period. With just under three minutes left, Stacey, Forfar and Berghuis failed to convert a three-on-one advantage into a goal.

By the time the second period was over, the Big Green had put 30 shots on goal, compared to just four for Union, despite amassing only a one-goal advantage.

“There’s always going to be a frustration when we’re outshooting a team and can’t seem to bury the puck,” Stacey said. “Personally, I just couldn’t put it to the back of the net tonight, but we were all doing really good things out there tonight and doing what we were supposed to do.”

That frustration carried into the early part of the final period as Tess Bracken ’19 rattled a shot off the post on an early two-on-one. The Big Green would not find the net again until a Forfar emptynet goal with less than two minutes left to play with the Union goaltender pulled for an extra attacker. Forfar’s empty netter iced the win for Dartmouth and ended Union’s hopes of earning their first win of the season.

Neither team was awarded a power play at any point during the Big Green’s 2-0 victory.

“I think there’s good and bad in playing five-on-five,” Hudak said. “It’s certainly nice when you get a power play, and you get some more scoring opportunities that way. At the same time, playing five-on-five lets us control the lines.”

After a dominant weekend, the Big Green sits one point back from Harvard University for the top spot in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

The team has next weekend off and will return to action on Nov. 27 for backto-back matchups with the University of Wisconsin.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. New Hampshire 7 pm

With basketball season getting underway, The Dartmouth sat down with men’s basketball head coach Paul Cormier to get a look at how this year’s team will look to build on last season’s performance.

The Big Green (0-1,0-0 Ivy) ended last season on a strong finish, recording a 7-7 record in conference play and earning a postseason bid for the first time in 56 years. They played in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, where they fell in the first round to Canisius College.

The preseason media poll picked the Big Green to finish sixth in the conference, but with a strong freshman class and several experienced seniors, the team looks primed to turn some heads in the Ivy League.

How is this team building on last season and replacing production from the team’s departures?

PC: This year we have a different type of team. We lost three very good players last year: John Golden [’15], who was a stalwart on defense, Gabas Maldunas [’15], who was probably our best player as far as overall. Our leading scorer, Alex Mitola [’16], decided to graduate in three years and take his fourth year of eligibility to another school.

How has your team’s identity changed since last season?

PC: We lost three key people, so we are putting a new style of play together that fits our talent. That means playing with much more depth. We don’t have a lot of stars, but we have a lot of solid, very good players. We are going to use that to our advantage, hopefully finding a couple key scorers in the group, and that might even come from our freshmen. Evan Boudreaux [’19] started off his college career with a phenomenal game against a tough, physical, athletic Seton Hall [University] team down at the Prudential Center.

Which seniors are you hoping to see take a leadership role on this team?

PC: All of them to be honest with you. Tommy Carpenter [’16], com-

ing off our bench, is our captain.

Our cavalry off the bench will include three or four seniors, and that experience they have will keep us up and maybe even give us a shot in the arm.

What brand of basketball are you hoping to play this season?

PC: We’ll be running a little bit more, going up and down. We won’t be setting up as many set plays as we have in the past. We ran a lot of two-man game, but now we are going to be a more equal opportunity offense where everyone contributes.

We hope to have a much more balanced attack.

Can you tell me a little bit about the freshmen joining team this season?

PC: We have three freshmen in our class, two of which are ready to contribute right away, and the third one, Michael Stones [’19], is a tremendous athlete. As his skills develop and catch up to his athleticism I think down the line he will help us. We also have Evan Boudreaux, who was terrific and was the MVP of the game for us, starting this season. And we have another kid, Guilien Smith [’19], from Boston, who played 12 to 15 minutes in our opener against Seton Hall. It wasn’t a great starting game for him because they might be the toughest team we face all year, but he defi nitely looks comfortable.

This was a great learning experience for these guys, and they are definitely going to help us down the road.

What can fans of Big Green basketball expect from this team this season?

PC: We are going to be a lot of fun to watch, I can guarantee you that. Rather than walk-it-up style, we are going to bring it up much more aggressively. Defensively, we are going to try to extend our defense a little bit because I think we have the depth and the quickness up front. We can put a lot of really quick athletes on the floor. It is going to be a different type of team than we have been in the past.

This interview has been edited and condensed.