HANOVER, N.H. -- The talk leading up to Saturday's Ivy League opener was of a much-improved Dartmouth football team, and it was clear that the Big Green was not the usual pushover.
However, the Quakers played a solid game on defense and special teams, coming out of New Hampshire with their first league win, defeating Dartmouth, 26-9.
In a game that was close early on, Penn quarterback Pat McDermott tossed touchdowns to Chris Mizell and Billy May -- their first career TD catches -- to seal the victory.
Dartmouth looked up to the challenge in the first quarter, but started to slip after some key mistakes and never fully recovered.
In the first quarter, neither team was very explosive on offense, but each methodically brought the ball down the field. What momentum Dartmouth gained from an 11-play, 54-yard drive faded away when kicker Erik Hinterbichler hit the upright on a 32-yard field goal to keep the game scoreless. Then on the next drives the momentum flipped, and Penn's defense started to get back in sync.
"We came out a little bit flat, a little lethargic," said Penn coach Al Bagnoli. "We went to a 4-3 look, and then back to our regular 3-4. We started mixing it up and coming with pressure."
This worked very well throughout the rest of the game. Dartmouth finished the contest with 16 total rush yards, rushing for negative yards after that one productive drive.
"They are big, strong kids out there, so we just tried to stay physical for all four quarters." Quakers defensive lineman Brian Fairbanks said. "That's just the way Penn defense works."
Dartmouth's next four drives resulted in a combined loss of three yards, including a fumbled punt which was almost returned for a touchdown.
"Offensively we struggled, we had one very good drive in the first half and then very inconsistent," Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens said. "We had missed assignments, missed opportunities with the passing game, our running game got suffocated there, and in the kicking game we missed two field goals in the first half, the PAT miss, the two blocked punts and the snap over the punter's head."
Late in the first half Dartmouth got down inside the Quakers' 10-yard line, but with the clock running out Hinterbichler missed another chip shot, grazing the left post, this time on a 24-yarder.
Despite a change at quarterback from senior Charlie Rittgers to freshman Josh Cohen in the second half, Dartmouth could only muster up nine points. The Quakers defense was all over the Big Green quarterback -- no matter who it was. They tallied a whopping eight sacks, three of them from Jim Malizia and two each from Sam McGarity and linebacker Kory Gedin. Penn also added six tackles for loss.
Meanwhile, Penn's offense still was not smooth, but eventually did get something going. After two more Derek Zoch field goals, The Quakers finished the half on a nice nine-play, 61-yard drive culminating in another kick, taking a 9-0 lead into the half.
After a field goal closed the gap to 9-3, Penn marched down the field on the next possession to score the eventual game-winning touchdown. The key play on the drive came on a third down and 12 from the Dartmouth 21-yard line when McDermott connected with wide receiver Braden Lepisto for a 14-yard pass fit into zone coverage, which set up Mizell's seven-yard touchdown.
After the teams traded possessions and turnovers, the Red and Blue extended the lead when McDermott found May for a four yard touchdown to go up 23-3.
Dartmouth finally got in the end zone to make it a two-touchdown game with over seven minutes to go, but thanks to an interception by Casey Edgar and a second blocked punt, that was the closest the Big Green would get.
