Dartmouth Men Turn In Strong Performance Against Harvard, Win 57-7

Dartmouth traveled to Cambridge this weekend for their second meeting with Harvard.  The Crimson had proved to be Dartmouth’s stiffest league competition this year, playing the Big Green close in the first match of the season in Hanover. Knowing the Crimson to be a tough and worthy opponent, Dartmouth went into the match looking to improve from their first meeting.  The Big Green established control early and didn’t look back on their way to a 57-7 victory.

Senior wing Rex Littlefield opened the scoring in the third minute off a crisp passing set from captain and outside center Madison Hughes ’15 and freshman flyhalf Dawit Workie.  Hughes would go onto score minutes later with a quick tap-and-go from 15 meters out.  The nine tries Dartmouth tallied on the day all came from different players and in various manners, including junior wing Brendan Cronin’s break-through 50-meter run to start the second half. 

One of the players who stood out most on this day was flanker Erik Warnquist.  The sophomore made large contributions on both sides of the ball, exhibiting dominance at the contact point with convincing tackles and forced turnovers, and setting up teammates with powerful runs and timely offloads as well as running in a try of his own.

Warnquist explained, “We knew we needed to step up our intensity at the breakdown after the last match we played against them.  We picked it up and were able to really match them at the contact point. We also developed some good set piece play to match their style which really helped.”

Dartmouth’s pattern of strong defensive performances continued Saturday as they conceded only one try to a Harvard team that had put up eighteen points on them in the previous meeting. 

When asked for his thoughts on the game, Dartmouth coach Gavin Hickie said, “I am relatively happy with the performances of our teams against Harvard. It is difficult as a coach to be completely satisfied with every aspect of our play but I do believe that we are growing as a team and that is exciting. The players are responding well to the challenges put to them by the coaching staff as we continue to build depth in the DRFC squad.”

Hickie continued, “Harvard are always a difficult team to play against, especially in Cambridge, and there were times during the game they put us under a lot of pressure. I feel that the scoreline probably flattered us a little. However, I am happy that we kept working until the final whistle.”