Dartmouth men blank Harvard in Boston

Carrying forward the momentum of a 61-10 victory over Cornell in their Ivy League fall opener, the Big Green delivered another impressive performance in Boston this past Saturday.  

Discussion across social media and rugby newsletters about Harvard’s 1-0 record abound, Saturday’s meeting with the Crimson held extra import. Coming off a thrice-defeated year against the Dartmouth squad in 2014, Harvard was out for blood. Despite Harvard’s hard charging attitude, the Big Green soundly defeated the Crimson at home, delivering 8 tries while allowing none in a notable 58 – 0 victory.  

Clear skies and bordering on broiling heat, Saturday was a beautiful day to play the game of rugby. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the bus journey, but Dartmouth opened the game a bit on their heels. Coupled with Harvard’s early physicality, unforced errors and lack of discipline caused a gradual start for the Big Green. Turnovers and penalties piled up in the first stanza, yet Dartmouth continued to grind. Flyhalf Dawit Workie helped tip the scales early in the game, converting an early penalty for points and setting up outside center Brendan Cronin for the first try of the game off an early turnover lineout.   

Vehement tackling around the ruck from Captain Peter Savarese and senior prop Andrew Berson dismantled Harvard’s forward oriented attacking platform and characterized the gritty defense Dartmouth displayed around the pitch. In addition to stalwart defense, the Big Green’s scrum repeatedly overpowered the Harvard pack, sending their backs scrambling to cover quick turnover ball.  As defense eroded Harvard’s composure, the Big Green began piling on the points. Zach Fowler stiff-armed and steamrolled his way through the Harvard back line for tries under the post three times on the day. Fullback Ryan Maguire and wing Will DeChatellus worked magic out wide, executing long runs and cheeky offloads – once converting a stolen Harvard lineout into a 90-meter try.  

Peter Savarese stepped in as team captain for the match as Madison Hughes, recently named captain of the USA Eagles 7s team, was in San Diego preparing for international tour. Savarese commented after the match: "It's always fun to beat Harvard. We came in expecting them to play physically and they did manage to disrupt our game plan at the start. As the match progressed, we looked to get back to our basic skills and were able to execute more effectively. We had some very strong runs from our backline and our forwards dominated up front, largely containing Harvard's interior attack. Overall, it was a great team effort and a great result. We look at this as just the next step to our goal of winning the Ivy League and look forward to our challenge next weekend – a double header against Penn and Princeton. Congratulations again to our captain Madison Hughes on his appointment as captain of the American men's 7s team- we wish him all the best.”

After the game, Dartmouth Coach Gavin Hickie echoed the sentiments of Savarese, reflecting that "while we are relatively happy with our performance against Harvard, we know we are not as clinical as we aspire to be, yet. We will continue to focus our training on executing our core skills under pressure. We are starting to gel as a squad which is satisfying but we have a crucial week ahead with two big games against Penn and Princeton who will provide stern tests for us."
 
Dartmouth’s pursuit of the Ivy League championship continues with a big double-header weekend in Hanover. The 1st XV will kickoff on Brophy Field against Penn at 11:00 am on Saturday, with Princeton to follow at 1:00 pm on Sunday.

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