Dartmouth 28, Cornell 21
At some point in every season even a championship team needs to face the acid test of exactly how good it really is. Such was the case on November 17 when the Indians tangled with Cornell at Ithaca. Riding the crest of an undefeated season and needing only one more win to clinch the Ivy League title, the Big Green came up against an upset-minded Big Red team.
For the second week in a row, the Green faced an excellent quarterback, Gary Wood, who was almost the entire Cornell offense. He and fullback Bob Milne made big yardage through what is considered the best line in the Ivy League. For the first time this season Coach Blackman was forced to go with his first unit almost all the way.
Cornell took the opening kick-off and marched to the Dartmouth one-yard line only to fumble. The Indians, however, were unable to move outside of their 15 and were forced to punt. This time the Big Red took the ball and did not give it up until Milne had scored.
And for the first time this fall the Indians were behind. Spangenberg took the kick-off and ran it out to the Dartmouth twenty, where the Tomahawks took over. In four plays the Indians moved to the 35, at which point the period ended and the first team came back into the game.
On the second play that followed, King connected with Spangenberg who fought his way to the Cornell 16 before he was dropped. Two end sweeps by King and then a drive up the middle, and King had a touchdown.
On the next series of downs the Green defense stiffened and Cornell was forced to punt. The Indians took the ball and in nine plays went 88 yards to score. It was all Bill King. First he went 24 yards on a rollout around right end, then on three successive pass plays he hit Dave Lawson for 16, Charlie Greer for 17, and Spangenberg for 19, which carried to the Cornell 12. A penalty set the Green back five yards, but King more than made up the loss with another rollout. He tossed one to Lawson, which carried to the Cornell one and then capped the drive by going over himself on a keeper play.
The score remained 14-7 until the fourth period, which saw both teams score twice. Late in the third period, a Dartmouth drive had ended with a fumble in the Cornell end zone. Awarded a touchback, the Big Red started a touchdown drive of 80 yards which was climaxed in the fourth period by Wood, who went over. The extra point was good and the score was 14-14.
This set the stage for an all-out effort by the Indians. With their backs to the wall for the first time they came roaring back. Spangenberg, King and McLean shared the ball-carrying as the Indians moved from their own 17 to the 49. King was thrown for a loss at this point and it appeared that the drive might stall, but the Richmond, Va., signal-caller had other ideas as he hit Creelman on a 25-yard pass play, good to the Cornell 30. On the next play King again went around end, to the 18. Spangenberg needed only one more play as he went the remaining distance with aid of good blocking.
Cornell tried valiantly to tie up the ball game, but a 15-yard clipping penalty and the stubborn Dartmouth defense forced the Big Red to punt. In the Indian drive that followed, there were no fancy pass plays, just a straight ground attack. In ten plays, however, the Green went from its own 13 to score. Spangenberg carried three times in this drive for 49 yards and on one carry almost went the distance. It was King, though, who finally went over from the 6, for his third touchdown of the afternoon.
In the battle of the quarterbacks, King had slightly the better of the statistics, completing 7 out of 16 passes for 146 yards and running for 106 yards. Wood carried 32 times for 161 yards,, but completed only five passes for 55 yards.
Lawson (34) takes King's (14) handoff and heads into the Harvard line as Spangenberg (23) fakes and McKinnon (51) blocks.
