DARTMOUTH 14, COLUMBIA 7
With Billy Roberts celebrating his last appearance on Memorial Field by enjoying a personal field day, Dartmouth defeated Columbia by the margin of a single touchdown and thereby extended its comeback campaign to three consecutive victories. Roberts scored the two touchdowns for Dartmouth, both on long, twisting, power runs, after it seemed time and again that he would be stopped by the operatives in Blue and White. The first of these scoring jaunts was for 42 yards and the second for 50 yards, and these two forays just about spelled the difference between the two teams.
Dartmouth started out in anything but auspicious fashion. On the first running play of the game, halfback Al Reich fumbled on the Dartmouth 18-yard line and Columbia recovered. Five plays later, the visitors had their first (and only) touchdown, before some of the clients were settled in their seats. So once again the Green was obliged to win the hard way by coming from behind. This they did by scoring in the first and third periods and then staving off a determined aerial attack by Columbia's talented sophomore tosser, Mitch Price. Dartmouth showed a marked superiority on the ground piling up 289 yards by rushing (150 of them by Roberts) compared with 83 for Columbia. For a while, however, it looked as though the Green would soundly outstatistic Columbia and then be forced to settle for a 7-7 or 14-14 tie. But events happily turned out otherwise.
The first Dartmouth touchdown was set up midway through the first quarter, following a recovery of a fumbled punt by big Red Bailey, who pounced on the errant ball on the Columbia 42-yard line. On the next play, Roberts cut loose around his own left end, went down the sidelines, cut back, and finally sprawled across the goal line with < a good part of the Columbia team on top of him. He was badly shaken up on the play and had to leave the game, with considerable doubt at that point whether or not he would be able to return. Toward the end of the half, the Green got under way again and progressed to the Columbia 6-yard line, following a brilliant run by Ed Isbey (who played the best game of his career at right halfback). This march failed, however, when a Columbia man intercepted one of Clayton's passes in the end zone and then stepped out of bounds for a touchback. The half ended with the score still tied at 7-7.
Midway through the third period, Bobby Tyler got away for a 20-yard run around midfield, on one of his 11 carries for a total of 64 yards for the afternoon. With the ball on the 50-yard line, a rejuvenated Roberts broke over the right side of his line and tightroped along the east sidelines to the goal line. In this dash, he maneuvered his own interference so skillfully that the enemy was able to impede his forward motion only slightly. He crossed the line with power to spare. That ended the scoring on both sides and Dartmouth spent the rest of the afternoon rushing the Columbia passer and stopping their running attack cold at the line of scrimmage. For the third successive week, the Dartmouth line decisively outplayed its opponents and thereby contributed substantially to the final outcome.
In the matter of first downs, Dartmouth scored 15 against 11 for Columbia. The visitors attempted more than twice as many passes as Dartmouth, with the Blue and White completing 10 out of 22 (most of them in the right flat of Dartmouth) for a total of 100 yards. Clayton, who was visibly limping all afternoon from the ankle injury sustained in the Yale game, had one of his less spectacular afternoons, completing only 5 out of 9 for 99 yards, with two interceptions. For once, Dartmouth managed to get off with a minimum of penalties, as compared to some of their recent starts. The little men with the whistle restrained themselves admirably throughout the game, with only 20 yards called against Dartmouth for fouloffsides, and 25 yards against the visitors, with one 15-yard infraction.
Dartmouth was at full strength for this contest, with the exception of punter Dick Brown, who was injured so badly in the Yale game that he is probably out for the season. Bobby Tyler added the kicking chores to his running assignment and came through commendably, although not so devastatingly as Columbia's left-footed operative, who averaged 40 yards from the line of scrimmage. Clayton, as noted, was still bothered by his ankle, but the rest of the team was in reasonably good shape, including the ace safety man, Charlie Curtis. As the last three Saturdays have gone by, the team has continued to salvage game after game after a heartbreaking series of injuries and reverses early in the season. With Cornell and Princeton still to go, most anything might happen.
FULLBACK BILL ROBERTS who closed his Memorial Field gridiron career with two brilliant scoring runs in the Columbia game, November 11, shown eluding Lion tacklers for one of his many gains.
