DARTMOUTH 8, SYRACUSE 0
Gridmen Score Single Win Over Syracuse, Tie Princeton; Hanley Captures Intercollegiate Cross-Country Crown
CAREFUL READERS of this column will undoubtedly remember our daring prediction of last month that, sooner or later and come what may, Dartmouth would eventually win a football game. They did. This is it. Not for a long time has a Dartmouth team waited until the last weekend in October before breaking into the winning column. They finally did so in the rain and mud of Archbold Stadium against a none-too-powerful Syracuse aggregation. The somewhat bizarre score was accomplished by an unconverted touchdown and a safety—the former appropriately made on a quarterback sneak by Meryll Frost and the latter by big Atherton Phleger's block of a Syracuse punt from their own end zone.
When you have said that, you have said about all there is to say, beyond the by-now-somewhat-redundant statement that the star of the Big Green was the aforementioned Frost. As he has continued to do all season, this gallant warrior directed the team from the T, passed, punted, ran with the ball and generally did everything but act as time-keeper. He was ably assisted in this venture by the Dartmouth forward wall, which has played a remarkable defensive game this season (with the exception of the Notre Dame debacle) and has consistently held the opposition to low scores. If the boys were as adept on the offense as they have shown themselves to be on the defense, the season would have been considerably brighter.
The only Dartmouth touchdown was negotiated in the waning moments of the game, after Dartmouth had sat on a slender 2-0 lead since the first period. With only three minutes to go, Dartmouth took over on the Syracuse 34. On the first play, Frost whipped a long pass to halfback. Becker, who was stopped just short of a touchdown. A second later, Frost carried the ball himself over the goal line and by so doing sewed up a tough defensive contest which might have gone either way. The boys in Green chalked up the respectable total of 230 yards on the ground for their pains, which was very good going in view of the uncertain footing. The Dartmouth passing attack in point of number was negligible on this occasion, with the only completlon the toss which led to the touchdown. This one effort, however, was of more use than the ten which Syracuse managed to complete for a total of 125 yards.
On another occasion, Dartmouth surged dangerously close to pay dirt, with a march ending on the Syracuse 2-yard line, where the Green lost the ball on downs. It was at this point, however, that the Syracuse kick was blocked and the slender lead established. Syracuse in its turn managed to get to the Dartmouth 3-yard line on one series of plays, at which point the Big Green line rose in its wrath and hurled them back. This game was the first played between the two institutions since Syracuse nosed out Dartmouth some 24 years ago in the Polo Grounds by the score of 14-7. So it was nice to win this one.
