Ball bounced Big Green's way

The luck of the Big Green? That certainly could have been the theme of Dartmouth's 23-15 win over Penn (0-1, 0-1 Ivy League). In fact, Penn coach Al Bagnoli referred to the contest as the "weirdest game" during his tenure in West Philadelphia. In the first half, 14 of the Big Green's 20 points came after mental lapses or fluke plays. With the score knotted at nil, Dartmouth recovered Brian Bonanno's muffed punt on the Quakers' 13 yard line. Penn's defense looked as if it had stumped the Big Green offense, when on third-and-10, quarterback Peter Sellers fired a pass into the end zone, intended for tight end Will Harper. Safety John Bishop and cornerback Joe Piela were all over him, Harper reached up to grab it, but the ball bounced off his hands. The pigskin fell to the ground, and Dartmouth wide receiver Zach Ellis dove and caught it inches off the turf for a touchdown. As if that play weren't bad enough, Penn suffered another mishap in the opening moments of the second quarter. This time, running back Melvin Alexander coughed up the ball, giving Dartmouth excellent field position at Penn 35 yard line. Two minutes later, Penn was down 10-0, thanks to a 23-yard field goal by Dave Regula. At this juncture, fluke No. 2 occurred. Following the field goal, Regula kicked off and sophomore Brandon Carson took the ball two steps into the end zone. Carson, who had three receptions for 37 yards, broke four tackles and had some daylight when he stumbled and the ball popped loose. The pigskin hit the ground and bounced right into the arms of kicker Regula, who pranced 32 yards into the end zone. "I wasn't really ready for it," Regula said. "I was ready to stick my head in and try to make the tackle, but then he cut up field and all of sudden I was going away with the ball. I don't even remember turning on my jets to go, I just wanted to get to the corner." In a matter of seconds, Regula had scored 10 points and had given the Big Green all the offense they would need for victory. "There may have been some lucky plays for us today," a sheepish Dartmouth coach John Lyons said. "But our guys were also in the right place at the right time." Lyons, attempting to downplay his team's good fortune, tried to make it sound as if he had drawn up those plays on the sidelines during pre-game warm-ups. Bagnoli put it better when he commented on how mental errors and poor special teams play did the Quakers in. "They had a little bit of luck," Bagnoli said. "We deflect a ball and they catch it for a touchdown. "And how many times have you seen a guy return a kickoff where the kicker picks up the loose ball and returns it for a touchdown. Some flukish plays did occur, but in the end, we made too many mental errors on special teams against an experienced team." With Penn trailing 20-0 at the half, the Quakers attempted to make things interesting for the final 30 minutes. In the second half, the Red and Blue scored 15 unanswered points to cut the lead to eight, but Lady Luck never left Dartmouth's side. The Quakers defense made one big stop after another throughout the final 30 minutes (complimenting their solid first half) in pitching a shutout. Despite holding Dartmouth to just two first downs in the third and fourth quarters (the latter first down coming in the final seconds with the game virtually over), Penn could not overcome the shoddy first-half play of its special teams. Lyons was asked after the game if he had ever coached a game in which his team notched just five first downs all game, but came out the victor. "Nope, I have never seen that happen before," Lyons said. "But we knew we were going to struggle offensively and that our special teams and defense would have to make up for that." Not only did Penn ring up 17 more first downs than did Dartmouth, but the Quakers out-rushed and out-passed the Big Green as well. However, when tallying up all the return yardage for Dartmouth, from punts and kickoffs to fumbles and interceptions, the Big Green had a whopping 20.8-yard average. Not once did the Dartmouth offense legitimately score points. While Penn had to earn each and every one of its 15 points, the Big Green tacked on 23 points thanks to Penn miscues and a heaping portion of good luck.