It’s Easy Beating Green

HANOVER, N.H.—For Dartmouth fans, it was another disappointing Saturday afternoon after watching their football team remain winless so far this season.

Meanwhile, it couldn’t have gotten any sweeter for the Crimson faithful, as the Harvard football team lit up the scoreboard and put on an array of offensive and defensive dominance against the worst team in the Ivy League. As expected, it was a lopsided 35-7 victory for the Crimson (6-1, 3-1), beating the Big Green (0-7, 0-4) in front of 4,111 spectators in Hanover, N.H.

While Harvard entered Saturday’s football game ranked ninth nationally in the passing game, it was the running game that stole the show.

“We were forced to run the ball today, and thankfully the guys up front did a good job and all the backs ran hard,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy said.

As a result, the passing game took a backseat, as senior quarterback Chris Pizzotti completed 12-of-18 passes for only 98 yards and one touchdown. Similarly, production for junior wide receiver Matt Luft decreased, as he caught only two passes for 27 yards.

On the other hand, 368 of the 466 total offensive yards for the Crimson came on the ground, with junior tailback Ben Jenkins leading the way with 111 yards on 20 carries. Harvard lined up rarely-used fullback Michael Doerner and blasted the Big Green’s defense off the line. Doerner also had four carries for 14 yards.

The offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage, pushing around a diminutive defensive line whose heaviest player weighed 250 pounds, a full 25 pounds lighter than the Crimson’s smallest lineman.

“The offensive line has been a huge strength for us all year,” Pizzotti said. “They continued to open up holes for us today.”

From the opening kickoff, Harvard came onto the field firing on all cylinders. After a quick three-and-out by a stingy Harvard defense, the Crimson scored quickly with an 11 yard keeper by Pizzotti, taking a 7-0 lead.

Defensively, Harvard created headaches all afternoon for junior quarterback Alex Jenny and freshman backup Connor Kempe.

Showing a variety of blitz packages, man-to-man, and zone coverage, the Crimson limited Dartmouth to a miniscule 123 total yards. More impressively, Dartmouth was held to -2 total rushing yards for the entire game. Senior linebacker Eric Schultz led the way for the team with four tackles as well as an 11-yard sack.

Though the Crimson had its way in all aspects of the game, Dartmouth earned the respect of Murphy and his players for playing physical football.

Nevertheless, the Crimson continued to march down the field with poise and confidence.

After three consecutive runs of five, eight, and seven yards, junior kicker Patrick Long split the uprights with a 34-yard field goal with 12:13 to go in the second quarter.

On the ensuing Big Green drive, Dartmouth had its biggest play of the game to that point—a 15 yard roughing-the-passer penalty on Harvard for an automatic first down. The offense quickly stalled, however, and the Big Green was forced to punt the ball once again.

Harvard went back to work with the running attack. With a couple of scrambles by Pizzotti and a 31-yard carry by sophomore running back Gino Gordon, the Crimson found itself in the end zone once again. With a great block by Luft, Pizzotti scored his second rushing touchdown of the day and put Harvard up 17-0 with 1:59 remaining in the first half.

After forcing another three-and-out, Harvard found itself with the ball on its own 28-yard line with 40 seconds to go, and the Crimson continued to drive. Productive running by Gordon and Pizzotti, along with a fortuitous personal foul on Dartmouth, led to a 30-yard field goal by Long as time expired to end the half.

The afternoon would get even longer for the Big Green after halftime.

The dejected offense lost 15 yards in total offense over the course of the third quarter, even after second-team players filled in for the Crimson’s starters.

To make matters worse, the Harvard offense continued to be relentless. After a Pizzotti strike to senior tight end Jason Miller and a safety by senior defensive end Desmond Bryant, Harvard found itself up 28-0 at the end of the third quarter.

With a victory in hand, the Crimson worked the clock, running 32 consecutive rushing plays. Dartmouth would finally score on a 3-yard pass from Kempe with 44 seconds remaining to prevent the shutout.

The Big Green could not find any answers to a dangerous offense and stifling defense throughout the afternoon.

“What else can you do?” Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens asked. “Offensively, [you’ve] got to control the football and get them on the sidelines. We have to tackle better; we had opportunities to ]get to] the QB, and we just didn’t finish up.”

“Well, I think the bottom line is that we were the better team today,” Murphy said. “You know, we’re just a more mature, experienced football team.”