Dartmouth Stuns Brown Ending The Bears Title Hopes
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Heading into play on Saturday there were 3 teams in contention for the Ivy League football championship. Harvard, Brown and Penn were all in the mix. With two games remaining in the season, the Crimson was a perfect 5-0 in league play while the Bears and Quakers were 4-1.
The Bears hosted Dartmouth at Brown Stadium in a game most believed would be won by Brown while the Crimson and Quakers squared off at Harvard Stadium. The Big Green stunned the Bears 21-16 while Harvard pounded Penn 37-20. Those results gave Harvard the 2011 Ivy League title.
For the Bears, it was the same problem that has dogged them all season long – an inconsistent offense. For many years, Brown’s offense dominated the Ivy League ranking at or near the top of the league rankings in virtually every statistical category. Not this season.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDespite quite a bit of talent on the offensive side of the ball, the Bears have been unable to put together a 60-minute performance all season long and it cost them against Dartmouth.
The Big Green dominated time of possession by more than 13 minutes. Part of that was due to the fact that they have the best running back in the league in Nick Schwieger (137 yards, 1 TD). But it also had a lot to do with Brown’s inability to sustain any type of offensive drives in the second half.
Brown jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Newhall-Caballero (22-33 for 252 yards, 1 TD 1 INT) to Alexander Tounkara-Kone (6 rec. for 71 yards, 1 TD).
But the Big Green answered right before halftime when Connor Kempe (10-18 for 106 yards, 1 TD) hit Garrett Babb (2 rec. for 40 yards, 1 TD) from 36 yards out to tie the game at 7.
An Alexander Norocea 37-yard field goal in the 3rd put Brown up 10-7 before Dartmouth drabbed its first lead of the game when Kempe plunged in from a yard out making it 14-10 Big Green late in the third.
On the ensuing kickoff, talented junior A.J. Cruz returned it 83-yards for a touchdown putting Brown back in front 16-14. Norocea missed the point-after keeping it a 2-point game.
Dartmouth would answer once again with a 15-play, 61-yard drive which was capped off by a Schwieger 1-yard touchdown putting the Big Green up 21-16.
Brown attempted to answer on its next drive but Caballero forced a pass into double-coverage in the end zone which was intercepted by J.B. Andreassi.
The loss drops Brown to (7-2) on the season and (4-2) in the Ivy League. Dartmouth improves to (4-5) on the season and (3-3) in league play.
The Bears wrap up their season at Columbia next Saturday. The Lions lost at Cornell to fall to (0-9) on the year.
