Lions Hand No. 25 Dartmouth First Season Loss In 19-0 Shutout

Upper West Side NY

25 October, 2021

12:40 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY MATTHEW KIM AND BERNARD WANG OCTOBER 23, 2021 Fresh off a booming 38-21 win against then-No. 23 University of New Hampshire, the Dartmouth football team was riding high heading into Friday night's matchup against Columbia. After traveling to Hanover on Thursday evening, the Light Blue found itself under a brighter spotlight than normal: not only did Dartmouth's Fall Family Weekend bring hundreds of parents to Friday evening's clash, but the game was also nationally televised on ESPNU. The stage was set, but the lights were not too bright for the Lions (5-1, 2-1 Ivy), who handed Dartmouth (5-1, 2-1 Ivy) its first loss of the season 19-0, holding the Big Green scoreless for the first time since 2011. "I couldn't be prouder of our kids," head coach Al Bagnoli said. "It was [a] tremendous team win, and kudos to everyone concerned." Both teams came out of the gates slow, punting on each of their first two possessions. Late in the first quarter, junior kicker Alex Felkins opened up the scoring with a 34-yard field goal after sophomore quarterback Joe Green and senior running back Dante Miller led Columbia's attack down the field. Late in the first quarter, picture-perfect pass coverage and heavy pressure on Dartmouth's Derek Kyler hurried the fifth-year quarterback, who appeared to fumble the ball inside Dartmouth's own 10. While the call was eventually ruled an incomplete pass after official review, the play set the tone early for a Light Blue defense that held Dartmouth to only 262 total yards. On the Lions' next possession off Felkins' field goal, a pair of explosive runs by senior running back Ryan Young brought Columbia all the way to the Dartmouth 32. Five plays later, with the ball on the Dartmouth 12 on fourth-and-one, the Lions brought in bruiser Gabriel Hollingsworth to try to gain a first down rather than opting for another field goal. The sophomore quarterback did not gain enough distance for the first down but was bailed out by a Dartmouth offside penalty, giving the Lions a first and goal. Following a one-yard rush by Young, Green slung a pass to senior wide receiver Mike Roussos, who was marked down on the Dartmouth 1. Hollingsworth then re-entered the game to finish the job. Ivy-leading tackler Jalen Mackie hit him on the one-yard line, but Hollingsworth stayed on his feet and carried Mackie across the goal line to score his third rushing touchdown of the year and increase the Lions' lead to 10. The Dartmouth offense, which was averaging over 32 points per game before Friday, struggled to move the ball downfield throughout most of the first half. After one quarter of play, the Big Green only had 24 yards of offense. The Lions managed to bottle up Dartmouth's normally formidable running attack all game, holding the Big Green to 60 yards on 20 carries. According to junior defensive lineman Mitch Moyer, the Lions made stopping the run a focus of their game plan. Moyer, who typically plays defensive tackle, moved over to defensive end as part of a schematic change that gave the Light Blue the equivalent of three defensive tackles up front. By allowing Moyer to set the edge, the Lions could, in Moyer's words, "try to stifle the outside zone game as much as possible, [or] try to force them into doing things they're not necessarily comfortable with or things that they don't always rely on." The personnel change paid off: Columbia neutralized wildcat quarterback Nick Howard, Dartmouth's leading rusher, holding him to 23 yards on 8 carries, far lower than the 92 rushing yards per game average he held before Friday. The Lions' front seven also played a key role in speeding up Kyler, who was forced to throw 45 times but only mustered 194 yards and a pick. The Lions brought pressure and prevented big plays, giving fits to a quarterback who had completed nearly 73 percent of his passes heading into Friday's matchup. "Kyler [is] a heck of a quarterback. Great completion percentage, makes high-percentage throws, is really accurate, and makes smart decisions with the ball," Moyer said. "So we knew in order to win, we'd have to pressure him, make him uncomfortable, make him scramble a little bit." Dartmouth tried to answer down 10-0, but senior strong safety Ben Mathiasmeier intercepted Kyler off of a tipped pass to give the quarterback his first interception thrown this season. Columbia went on to stop two more Dartmouth drives to end the half, one on an 11-yard sack by Cameron Coleman and another on a crucial fourth-and-short stop. Despite heading into halftime with a 13-0 lead, Bagnoli knew that the game was far from over. "You gotta play it like it was 0-0 because there's still 30 minutes against a very high-scoring, very explosive team," Bagnoli described his messaging to the squad during halftime. Fortunately for the Lions, the Dartmouth offense continued to stagnate in the second half. Still, Columbia did not want to give the Big Green any hope. On fourth-and-one with the ball on Columbia's 49, the Lions once again opted to go for a fourth-down conversion, with Green rifling a short pass to sophomore wide receiver Marcus Libman to get the first down. The decision paid dividends for the Light Blue, as the drive resulted in a 25-yard touchdown bomb from Green to Roussos. "We didn't come here to be timid," Bagnoli said of his decision to go for it on fourth down despite the 13-point lead. "We're gonna take calculated risks. I've got confidence in our kids, I've got confidence in our offense, I've got confidence in our offensive line, and we're gonna attack." From that point on, the Lions looked to run out the clock. Dartmouth had some promising drives of its own, but the Lions forced Dartmouth into incomplete passes on two fourth-and-goals in the waning minutes of the game to put the nail in the coffin. "We're trying to build this program up and become that blue-collar team that just comes in and goes for a 15-round fist fight," Moyer said. Junior linebacker Scott Valentas and senior defensive back Jordan Colbert stepped up in place of fifth-year linebacker Justin Woodley and senior defensive back Fara'ad McCombs, both of whom were sidelined with injuries. Valentas was second on the team with five tackles and Colbert provided a strong line of defense in the secondary, breaking up a pass. The team's depth will be tested again next week against Yale, as the Lions will be without Mathiasmeier in the first half after he was ejected on a questionable targeting call in the second half. While the Lions won the game with stellar defense, Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens said that his squad was not up for the challenge on Friday. "We were beaten in every aspect of the game," Teevens said. "They outplayed us from the opening kickoff right on through. We didn't have an answer. We were out-coached, we were outperformed, we made mistakes in all facets: offense, defense, and special teams." Penalties also plagued the Big Green, who saw flags thrown against them eight times for 60 yards lost. "We just weren't disciplined today," Dartmouth safety Niko Mermigas said. "That's the key to it all." The win not only gives the Lions a 2-1 record in the Ancient Eight and a 5-1 record overall, but also further complicates the race for the Ivy League title. Now, Columbia, Dartmouth, Yale, and Harvard all hold a tie for second in the conference, under Princeton, who sits alone at the top of the Ivy table. "If you want to tell the people that you're in the conversation, you have to have these signature wins," Bagnoli said. "You don't get too many of those opportunities during the course of the year. This was a big opportunity for us, and our kids took advantage of it." Friday's trouncing was the Lions' first shutout against a nationally ranked team, their first win against a nationally ranked team since 2003, and their first blanking of Dartmouth since 1944. It was also Columbia's first shutout since 2009, and the first of Bagnoli's era. Few could have predicted this outcome after Columbia entered the game as 17.5 point underdogs, according to the Action Network. "I couldn't be more happy," Green said. "We have a great group of guys, and [the win] sets us up great for the rest of the season." The Lions will travel to the Yale Bowl to face off against the Bulldogs next Saturday. Kickoff is at noon. Deputy Sports Editor Matt Kim can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @matt_kim9. Staff writer Bernard Wang can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator Sports on Twitter @CUSpecSports. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.