Gaining Momentum

DARTMOUTH football coach Joe Yukica is hoping a flurry of victories at the end of this season will provide some momentum for the 1980 campaign. "I'm pleased with the win," said Yukica after Dartmouth had defeated winless Pennsylvania, 20-6, in the season finale at Philadelphia. "It's our third in a row and fourth in five games. It gives us something to build on in 1980." The season was a disappointment for Dartmouth, the defending Ivy League champion. In its first four games Dartmouth was winless and had only a tie against the University of New Hampshire to show for its efforts. However, that frustration ended at Cambridge on October 14, when the Big Green ended a five-year drought to defeat Harvard, 10-7. Dartmouth returned to the losing column the next week when Cornell invaded Memorial Field. The Green took a 10-7 halftime lead but succumbed when the Big Red scored touchdowns in the final two quarters. The Green shut out hapless Columbia, 17-0, in the next outing in New York City.

The sole upset of the season was against Brown, before a crowd of 10,000 attending Houseparties Weekend. The Bruins took a 10-0 lead in the first half, and it looked as though Dartmouth was going to lose all of its home games for the first time in more than two decades. But a bad snap on a Brown punt gave Dartmouth a two-point safety and on the ensuing kick Barry Pizor of Wilmington, Delaware, scampered 65 yards for a touchdown. A successful two-point conversion knotted the score at 1010. The Dartmouth defense corraled Brown during the second half and quarterback Jeff Kemp of Bethesda, Maryland, fired touchdown passes of eight and 28 yards to junior split end Dave Shula of Miami Lakes, Florida, within 48 seconds in the fourth quarter to give the Green a 24-10 victory.

Shula also caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Kemp in the victory over Pennsylvania. It was his fifth touchdown reception of the season and set a career yardage reception mark, eclipsing the record of 1,023 yards set by Tom Rowe '5O from 1947 to 1949. Shula now holds five Dartmouth pass-reception records, with one more year of eligibility still remaining. By winning its last three games, Dartmouth finished tied for fourth in the Ivy League with Cornell. Dartmouth was 4-3 in the league and 4-4-1 overall. Yale, beaten only by Harvard in the finale, won the title with a 6-1 mark, and Brown and Princeton finished second with 5-2 records.

The Dartmouth soccer team ran into tough luck this fall after making it into post-season play during the past two years. Beset by graduation losses, the team could post only three victories and one tie in 14 outings. The men's cross-country team finished fourth in the NCAA District 1 qualifying meet in Boston. The Green harriers were paced by senior Blaze Tatan-nani of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, who placed tenth overall in a field of 120 runners. That finish qualified him for the NCAA Division 1 championships.