Hanover
There were 17 seconds remaining when Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan dropped back to pass from the Columbia 7-yard line. He suffered a 10-yard sack three seconds later. The senior scrambled to his feet and tossed the ball underhand to umpire Corey Williams, who was jogging toward him from the direction of the end zone.
Williams bobbled the ball before it bounded five yards across the turf toward the east stands. The official chased the pigskin down before incorrectly spotting it at the 15-yard line. Williams ran back and moved the ball to the 17, but by the time he backed away for a second time, the clock had expired.
“It took forever,” said Eleven Sports Network color announcer Matt Goldstein on the game’s television broadcast. “It seemed like Heneghan was going to have time to spike the football and run one last play, but the official was looking around and couldn’t find exactly where to spot the football.”
Columbia poured off its sideline in celebration of improving to 6-0 and 3-0 in Ivy League play. Dartmouth’s players and coaches walked about stunned, some with arms extended in disbelief. Receiver Emory Thompson hurled his helmet to the ground and stomped toward referee Hank Johns before teammate Ryder Stone pulled him back.
The officiating crew ran off the field toward its Alumni Gym locker room, a police officer jogging alongside and most in an announced crowd of 5,237 booing loudly. Columbia coach Al Bagnoli, whose team led, 16-0, at halftime, called the ending “poetic justice,” saying that his team was victimized by other poor calls during the game.
“The umpire was thrown the ball and he bobbled the ball, and it happens,” Bagnoli said. “Was it as smooth as you want it to be if you were the officials? No.”
Tight end Stephen Johnston and linebacker Eric Meile, the Dartmouth players made available to the media, declined to give substantive answers on the topic, after which coach Buddy Teevens indicated his approval to them. The bench boss said he didn’t see the point in protesting the sequence.
“They said game over, and I wasn’t going to talk them out of it,” Teevens said of the officials. “It didn’t look like it was professionally handled. It was like a scrum out there, with the ball kicked and moved all over the place, but it shouldn’t have come down to that situation.”
Good point. Dartmouth (5-1, 2-1) couldn’t convert any of its third-down chances and had possession for only 10 of the first half’s 30 minutes. The Big Green committed eight penalties for 80 yards and drove to the Columbia 6-yard line with three minutes remaining before turning the ball over on downs.
The running game was tepid for a third consecutive week, and the absence of standout receiver Drew Hunnicutt (knee injury) was noticeable.
“We put ourselves in a big hole early on and have a habit of doing that,” said Teevens, whose team saw its seven-game home winning streak against the Lions end. “We’ve been living on the edge for a long period of time. The belief was there, but we didn’t finish it off.”
Columbia opened the scoring on Oren Milstein’s 46-yard field goal late in the first quarter and went up, 10-0, after Josh Bean’s 1-yard touchdown run that capped a 12-play, 76-yard drive midway through the second quarter. The Lions scored after another long march, this time 42 seconds before halftime and on a 2-yard pass from Anders Hill to Josh Wainwright.
Milstein’s extra-point attempt failed, and Dartmouth kicker David Smith missed a 21-yard field goal as the first half expired, leaving the score 16-0.
Dartmouth climbed back into the contest on Jared Gerbino’s 1-yard touchdown run four minutes into the third quarter. However, Bean ran for another score, this time from 2 yards with four minutes remaining in the stanza. The Lions covered 80 yards in 10 plays but again couldn’t convert the extra point.
The fourth quarter began with Smith making a 33-yard field goal to pull Dartmouth within 22-10. Safety Bun Straton intercepted a Hill pass at Dartmouth 14-yard line with 10 minutes remaining. That pick set up a seven-play, 80-yard drive culminating in Heneghan’s 38-yard touchdown pass to Drew Estrada. Smith’s extra point made the score 22-17 with seven minutes on the clock.
Dartmouth got the ball back for its last drive at its 31-yard line and with 58 seconds remaining. With no timeouts, the Big Green used two pass completions to Stone, a horse-collar tackling penalty on Columbia, a Heneghan scramble and another completion, this one to Thompson, to reach the Lions’ 6-yard line with 17 seconds to play.
Up next for Dartmouth is a visit to archrival Harvard (3-3), which it hasn’t beaten since 2003. After that comes a clash against visiting Cornell, a meeting with Brown at Boston’s Fenway Park and a meeting with Princeton on Memorial Field.
“All we can do is win out and … hopefully, by the end of the year, something happens and we’ll be Ivy champions,” said Meile, who made a game-high 16 tackles.
Heneghan completed 21 of 36 passes for 331 yards and a touchdown. He also led the Big Green in rushing with 48 yards in seven carries, several of which kept drives alive. Hunter Hagdorn, back from an ankle injury, caught eight passes for 100 yards.
Hill completed 27 of 35 passes for 298 yards and a touchdown and had one toss intercepted. He led the Lions with 39 yards rushing. Wainwright caught 11 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown.
Notes: Dartmouth lost starting guard John Kilcommons to an injured knee and linebacker Jack Traynor suffered an injury in his shoulder area. The former did not return but the latter returned to action. … Goldstein’s day job is managing a drug store in Massachusetts. … Heneghan grew up 10 minutes away from Columbia safety Landon Baty in northern California and they were teammates on a Pop Warner football team. Baty, the son of former NFL tight end Greg Baty, was the quarterback and Heneghan usually the tight end on a squad that reached a regional final. … Teevens is 15-3 against Columbia, and Dartmouth is 34-7 against the Lions at Memorial Field. … Columbia is off to its best start since 1996, which was also its last winning season. The Lions’ lone Ivy League title was a shared one, in 1961.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.