Cornell 13, Dartmouth 7
This was a type of game that Dartmouth has been playing far too often this fall. The Big Green looked like a world beater during the first quarter, but then fell apart at the seams and didn't recover until the opposition had two touchdowns and it was too far behind to win. Statistics for the game showed Dartmouth with 16 first downs to only 6 for Cornell. The Indians gained 179 yards on passing against zero for Cornell, and in the rushing department Cornell had only a slight edge 202 yards to Dartmouth's 115.
But to get back to that disastrous first quarter, for it was here, in this observer's opinion, that the game was lost. Taking the opening kickoff, Dartmouth drove downfield to the Cornell 5-yard line on exactly ; 12 plays. Miller's passes to Thielscher and McLaughlin were clicking and Dick Collins and Russ Smale seemed to be able to gain consistently on the ground. However, with inches to go for a first down, halfback Bob Spencer was stopped cold. He lateraled to Dick Collins who raced over to score, but the whistle had blown, the officials ruled the ball dead and Cornell took over.
The Indians were naturally a little disconcerted, but plunged right back in an attempt to score. A few minutes later, however, they fumbled on the Cornell 27-yard line to lose another scoring opportunity and still later in the first period the Big Red held Dartmouth on their own 17-yard line. Thus after holding Cornell in check for the entire period and nearly scoring thrice themselves, the Big Green either ran out of steam or just got too discouraged.
It didn't take Cornell long to realize that the Indians were weakening. Minutes into the second period, Cornell halfback Guy Bedrossian with third down and one yard to go on the Cornell 40, took the ball and plunged through tackle. He shook off another tackier and then sped 60 yards while the 17,000 Fall Houseparty crowd stood and cheered. Jim Van Buren's try for the extra point was blocked by Jerry Samuelson.
But now Dartmouth began to fight back with Miller passing to Dave McLaughlin as Dave Thielscher, Dartmouth's leading pass receiver, was injured in the first period. However, as the Indians reached midfield, Russ McLeod intercepted one of Miller's passes on the 46-yard line, broke up the middle between two Dartmouth men and angled off to the left, going all the way for the Big Red's second score of the afternoon. This time Van Buren's kick was good.
Most of the balance of the game was fought on an even basis. The Cornell attack, a half split-T, couldn't seem to go anywhere, and the Big Green were bogging down at crucial times. Finally, with three minutes to go Russ Smale took a punt from Bill Whelan at midfield, picked up his blockers and raced all the way for the lone Dartmouth score. With two minutes to go the Big Green again had a chance and started to drive into Cornell territory on desperation passes. Then Jim Miller threw a long one downfield intended for Dick Collins, but Cornell's D'Agostino leaped high to intercept and the Big Red had the ball game.
ONE BY LAND AND TWO BY AIR: Russ Smale (43), who had a brilliant day against Columbia, shown scoring his second touchdown on a pass from Miller. He also returned a punt 40 yards to score.
A DEFENSIVE HORDE of Green players swarm in on John Valuska (44) of Columbia. The numbers seen belong to Tom Malcolm (58), Clark Murphy (82), Capt. Pete Reich (69) and Bayard Johnson (51).
