PENNSYLVANIA 20, DARTMOUTH 6
For the first 27 minutes of the Pennsylvania game, it looked as though Dartmouth were going to spring one of the major upsets of the season and defeat a team which had started its season the week before by smartly defeating a good Duke eleven. Dartmouth had managed to stave off several Penn threats during the first quarter, one of them ending in a Penn fumble recovered by Harry Bonk on Dartmouth's 9-yard line. On another occasion in the same period, Nick Fusilli, the stocky Marine guard, intercepted a Penn pass on the Dartmouth 15-yard line. These and similar activities kept the Green rooters' hearts in their mouths during the first period. But Penn did not score.
The Green went on to tally in the second period. A couple of nice runs by Walt Newman, formerly of Cornell, and one of the fastest sprinters Harry Hillman has ever had, helped to set up the scoring play. Walt was under ten seconds in the 100 several times last spring and used his speed to advantage in hustling down the field. The touchdown was made by Dick Bennett, who wears tire Guadalcanal flash on his Marine tunic after several months service in that pestilential South Pacific island paradise. Dick was hospitalized for the Holy Cross game, but celebrated his return to active duty by plunging over for the first (and only) Dartmouth score of the afternoon.
With only three minutes to go in the first half, Dartmouth was still leading 6 to o. At that point, somebody had the great idea that it would be much more heart-warming to trot off the field at the end of the half leading mighty Penn by two touchdowns instead of a measly one. The quarterback straightway called for a pass from midfield to implement this laudable idea. As ideas often do, this one went astray and the ball went with it. Instead of falling into the hands of Dartmouth's Harry Bonk, it sailed squarely into those of Tony Minisi of Penn, who thereupon dashed 69 yards for a touchdbwn and a tie score. This stroke seemed to unnerve the Indians, as well it might, and they never looked the same for the rest of the afternoon,. They threatened the Penn goal line only once thereafter; that was near the end of the game when their only forlorn hope was to cut down somewhat the differential between the two teams.
Dartmouth was soundly outstatisticked as well as outscored. They succeeded in nudging out only 6 first downs against lg for the opposition. Penn rolled up an impressive total of 227 yards by rushing the ball, as compared with 97 for the Green. We completed 6 out of 13 passes for a total of 62 yards, while Penn was completing 5 out of 7 for approximately the same total. The second half was largely unmitigated bad news for the Hanover boys, with Penn pushing over a tally in each of the final periods. Dartmouth came to life briefly in the third period, when slender Charley Holt returned a punt for 39 yards, only to have the rally ignominiously fizzle out following an abortive lateral pass recovered by Pennsylvania. The boys stayed in there pitching all the way, but the Penn power on the ground was too much for them. Two hundred and twenty yards overland as against 97 by the same means is not to be gainsaid. Dartmouth was soundly licked but far from routed.
For the second game in succession, Dartmouth was unable to field anything like its full strength. Big Hal Clayton at fullback was sidelined with a charley horse, which prevented him from churning up the turf in his accustomed fashion on that bright October afternoon. Lenny Robinson, who had flashed so brilliantly in the Holy Cross game, was not even able to make the trip. And the greatest potential runner of them all, Scott Miler, has not even had pads on since the middle of August. This lad, incidentally, was proclaimed by no other authority than Fritz Crisler (who ought to know) to be the equal of the fabulous Tommy Harmon at the same stage of his development. Certainly this 195 pound speed merchant looked like the best running back around these parts since the salad days of Bob MacLeod before he (Miler) was cut down in mid-summer with a bad knee injury. Old wearers of the Green do not have to be told what a dismal prospect is offered by a really bad football knee. Ed Gingrich, civilian freshman from Winthrop, Massachusetts, whose educated toe was expected to dazzle the opposition, had been hospitalized with virus pneumonia since shortly before the Holy Cross game. And there is Bill Bennett, regular tackle out for the season following a major operation; Bob Hicks, a burly center who played two years for the Tennessee varsity and reminds nostalgic Green sports followers of the eupeptic Mutt Ray. And so on. This is the sort of thing that prematurely ages head coaches and athletic directors.
TWO PLAYS THAT SCORED Dartmouth's lone touchdown against Penn. Above, Walt Newman (43) is shown taking a short pass from Britt Lewis that advanced the ball to the 2-yard line. On the next play, below, Dick Bennett knifed through tackle to score.
