Tough days on the gridiron
The 1985 Big Green football season got off to a slow start, as Dartmouth lost its season opener to the Princeton Tigers 10-3 before a half-packed stadium at Memorial Field in Hanover. This was a game Dartmouth played well enough to win, except for an offense that couldn't seem to muster its forces, particularly in the second half. Quarterback Brian Stretch, a senior from San Francisco, Calif., completed only 10 out of 30 passes and suffered three interceptions. He did, however, have more than a fair share of well-thrown aerials dropped by his receivers.
One of the key plays that turned the tide in Princeton's favor occured a minute before the halftime gun sounded. Trailing 10-0, Dartmouth had driven from its own 20-yard line all the way to the Tiger 25 when Stretch threw a pass to Scott Truitt '86 (Sarasota, Fla.) in the end zone. The Princeton defensive back made a spectacular diving catch that ended the Big Green threat. "Scott had his man beat in the end zone," Coach Joe Yukica said. "We guessed right and had man-to-man coverage. But they had inside pressure and Brian couldn't throw when he wanted to."
As the second half opened, Stretch directed the Green all the way to the Princeton 14. A sack on third down forced the Green to settle for senior Craig Saltzgaber's (Ridgefield, Conn.) 40-yard field goal. So with Princeton leading by only a touchdown, Dartmouth was very much in the ball game. In the fourth quarter, Princeton put together a drive that came up short as a 42-yard Tiger field goal attempt hit the crossbar and fell back onto the field, giving the Green renewed hope. "When it hit the crossbar and came back, I thought, 'lf that goes through the hoop we're in trouble,' " Yukica remarked. "As it turns out, we had our chance." The Green had penetrated the Princeton 30 late in the game when the Tigersf third interception put an end to Dartmouth hopes for a comeback win.
The best thing that came out of the game was that the defense, which is clearly in a rebuilding year, did a creditable job handling a Princeton offense that is always explosive with quarterback Doug Butler at the helm.
Against a bigger, stronger University of New Hampshire team, Dartmouth knew it would be in for a long afternoon unless the defense could contain all-American candidate Andre Garron. Unfortunately, Garron prevailed, setting a UNH single-game rushing record with 250 yards.
Hurricane Gloria threatened to be the main attraction, sweeping up the coast from the Carolinas and leaving the field at Durham, N.H., soggy from torrential rains the day before. But by game time, the skies had partially cleared and early on, things looked good for Dartmouth as they surprised UNH with an early touchdown - their first of the young season. A weak Wildcat punt gave the Big Green excellent field position on the UNH 35. Senior running backs Rob Brown (Longwood, Fla.) and Ernie Torain (Harrisburg, Pa.) marched on down the field to give the upset-minded Dartmouth eleven the lead on a one-yard plunge by Torain. The Wildcats reciprocated in the second quarter and added a 22-yard field goal to take a 10-7 lead into halftime - a lead, incidentally, that held up all the way into the start of the fourth quarter when UNH wore down the harried Dartmouth defense and went on to score two more touchdowns.
The final statistics were revealing - UNH had a total yardage of 486 yards (392 of them on the ground) to Dartmouth's 179 total and nearly three times as many first downs (28 to 10) as the Big Green. And the final score, 23-7, was considerably lower than it might have been, had Dartmouth's defensive unit not played as well as it did.
At two touchdowns, archrival Holy Cross was even more highly-favored over Dartmouth than UNH the previous week. Once again, the weather proved to be a factor, though this time the rain and wind seemed more in Dartmouth's favor. This was a game that should have broken Coach Yukica's losing streak against nonIvies.
On this first Saturday in October, it rained so hard at Memorial Field in Hanover that even when it stopped by halftime, the field condition continued to deteriorate through the third and fourth quarters. After an early field goal by the Crusaders, Dartmouth stormed back for two touchdowns to take its biggest lead of the season. Quarterback Brian Stretch finally got the Big Green offensive machine running on all cylinders, deftly mixing the passing and running game before he twisted his knee on a run just before halftime. He was replaced by David Gabianelli, a junior from St. Louis, Mo., who played the. rest of the game.
Dartmouth's first score came as a result of some first-rate defensive play as senior Len Fontes, who had 15 tackles against the Crusaders, knocked the ball loose from a scrambling Dave Hock, the Holy Cross quarterback. The fumble was recovered by junior linebacker John Fuhrman at the Crusader 35 yard line. Stretch handed off to tailback Ernie Torain who dropped back and passed the ball to wide receiver Geoff Michel who ran to the 2 yard line. Torain took the ball over for Dartmouth's first score and, following Saltzgaber's successful PAT kick, a 7-3 lead.
Shortly thereafter, a strong performance by the Big Green defense gave Dartmouth fine field position at the Holy Cross 37. On the fifth play from scrimmage, Torain once again plowed over the goal line and Dartmouth had its biggest lead of the season.
Holy Cross cut Dartmouth's lead to 14- 10 with a third-quarter touchdown. And then, with less than four minutes remaining, the visitors went on to score the goahead touchdown on a run by fullback Chuck Doyle. The defense seemed to do a good job containing Holy Cross's highlytouted ail-American candidate Gil Fenerty, but in keying on him, they lost sight of his running mate, Doyle, who had an excellent day, (111 yards and one touchdown). Fenerty came up with a couple of big plays, however, and ended up with 138 yards on the day himself. And the Big Green offense which looked so promising in the early going, sputtered in the second half.
For Coach Yukica and his squad, it was a particularly tough loss. "What hurts me," he said after the game, "is to have a team put out this kind of effort and lose. . .They don't make losses any tougher than that." In what was clearly the Big Green's best effort to date, the Rollins Chapel bells ought to have been clanging across the Green for the fifth quarter and into the afternoon.
