HANOVER — Nick Howard ran for 73 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Dartmouth College football team past Lehigh, 34-17, on Saturday at Memorial Field.

It was after the nonleague contest, however, that the fifth-year senior truly shone. Brought into a press conference to speak specifically about head coach Buddy Teevens’ recent death, the quarterback from Wisconsin conducted a master class in poise and vulnerable articulation.

“I’m going to think about Coach Teevens every day for the rest of my life,” Howard said. “Initially, you’re heartbroken and wondering, ‘What now?’ but everybody came out the next day with a really good mindset.

“Coach T, as awesome and humble as he was, would never want us to mope around, thinking about him in a negative way.”

Teevens, 66, succumbed Tuesday to injuries suffered in March when he and his bicycle were struck by a pickup truck estimated to be moving at 50 mph on a coastal Florida road. He was not wearing a helmet or wearing illuminated safety gear and was at an unauthorized crossing.

Periodic updates released by Teevens’ wife, Kirsten, through the Dartmouth athletic department, provided few details and often used the word “recovery,” sparking optimism among some. Tuesday’s news was a shock to many of them.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Howard said. “You would hear something and be feeling really good about it. Unfortunately, nobody got to interact with him the past six months, so not being able to say ‘thank you’ in the proper way has really been tough.”

Interim head coach Sammy McCorkle, who’s overseen a virtually seamless transition for the program, worked with Teevens for 18 years but didn’t see his boss after the crash. He said he has focused on Teevens’ past advice about remembering the good times had with any friend who’s passed.

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Teevens’ favorite singer was Jimmy Buffett, and the Big Green opened Thursday’s practice to his song “Margaritaville,” a tune McCorkle said caused emotion to swell inside him.

“Every time I go to that dark place, I remember the Buddy Teevens’ smile and the sparkle in his eye,” McCorkle said. “I can picture him bopping up and down and dancing, even if he wasn’t the greatest dancer. He’s dearly missed, for sure.”

Dartmouth’s Q Jones ran for 99 yards and a touchdown. Howard completed 5 of 7 passes for 20 yards and had one toss intercepted. Dylan Cadwallader competed 16 of 19 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown, and Sean Williams had a team-high six tackles and 101 combined yards in kickoff and punt returns.

“We were not sound in the second half,” said Lehigh coach Kevin Cahill, hired last year from Yale. “We’ve got some growing up to do, and we need a better willingness to compete, to be completely honest.”

McCorkle praised his offensive line, which returned four starters from last season’s 3-7 campaign. Dartmouth took 78 offensive snaps and possessed the ball for 38 minutes while limiting Lehigh to 167 offensive yards.

“Those guys got knocked around a little bit last year, but every time I looked in their eyes, they had that glare and didn’t want to come off the field,” McCorkle said of his road graders. “We have guys who play with confidence, and you could see that in the second half when they were letting loose.”

The Big Green went up, 10-7, early in the second quarter on an unusual sequence of plays. Dartmouth lined up to kick a 51-yard field goal, then took a timeout to rethink the decision with the end of the first quarter and sent Davis Golick out to punt.

Golick bobbled the ball and his kick was partially blocked and returned 72 yards for an apparent touchdown. However, Lehigh (1-3) was penalized for running into Golick and Dartmouth, now facing fourth-and-3, earned first down on a Howard run. Owen Zalc soon booted a 35-yard field goal that hit the left upright and snuck through for a 10-7 lead.

“A big momentum swing,” said a disgusted Cahill. “A game-changer. You can’t touch the kicker, even if he’s fumbling the ball.”

Lehigh’s Nick Garrido kicked a 26-yard field goal to forge a 10-10 tie with seven minutes before halftime. Dartmouth took the lead for good 35 seconds before intermission. Cadwallader tossed a 7-yard touchdown to Paxton Scott on a corner route, and the end of the Big Green’s long week was finally in sight.

“We all had Coach Teevens in the back of our minds, and it was coming from the heart that we have to make him proud,” said Howard, recalling how the coach comforted him after the loss of his mother, Mimi, to cancer in 2021.

“I’ve felt a lot of support from everywhere, from professors to the dining hall staff and from graduated students who I didn’t think paid attention to a single snap of Dartmouth football. It’s amazing, coach’s impact beyond football.”

The Big Green opens Ivy League play next week at Penn (2-0).

“It’s only going to get harder and harder, and we have to get better and better,” McCorkle said.

Notes: Dartmouth returned the opening kickoff, the fourth time it had done so during the young season. The Big Green returned only three kickoffs all of last season. … The teams kicked off from the 35-yard line. During Ivy League games, opponents kick off from the 40-yard line. … Washington Post contributor John Feinstein stood amidst the Dartmouth players on the sideline. Feinstein, who first came to prominence with his book “A Season On The Brink,” about Indiana University men’s basketball, is penning a tome on Ivy League football. ... Standout rush end Marques White missed his second consecutive game with an arm ailment. Starting offensive lineman Thomas Hartnett also missed the game because of injury. … Bill Hammond, formerly the principal of Norwich’s Marion Cross School, joined other Hanover Lions Club members in handling entry fees at the Thompson Arena parking lot before the game.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.