(STATS) – Unbeaten Dartmouth knew this past Saturday was Senior Day. The Big Green simply overlooked it was the date of the Cornell game as well.
Cornell pulled off a stunning, 20-17 upset in the Ivy League to end Dartmouth’s shot for a perfect season. The Big Red – the STATS FCS Team of the Week – entered with a 2-6 record and had lost 10 in a row in the series.
“I don’t think Dartmouth circled the Cornell game on the calendar,” Big Red coach David Archer said afterward, “and that’s why we could be such a dangerous team for them.”
Cornell, which is finishing its seventh straight losing season and hasn’t finished above .500 in the league or overall since 2005, beat a ranked opponent on the road for the first time since 1950.
Dartmouth (8-1, 5-1), which honored 29 seniors, was coming off two emotionally charged games, beating Harvard on a last-play Hail Mary pass and then Princeton in a matchup of two unbeaten teams. Cornell also has its share of influential seniors and it overcame a 14-3, second-quarter deficit for its biggest comeback win in more than two years.
Trailing 17-12 in the fourth quarterback, junior quarterback Richie Kenney connected with senior Owen Peters over the middle for a 24-yard touchdown and Kenney ran in a two-point conversion with 5:32 left. The Big Green had two more possessions, but Cornell stopped them on downs and then senior cornerback David Jones had a game-clinching interception in the final two minutes.
Senior Harold Coles scored on a 75-yard run and finished with 111 yards while going over the century mark for the third time this season. Jelani Taylor, a senior safety who’s having an All-Ivy season, had a game-high 11 tackles and forced a fumble at the Big Red 11 in the third quarter.
HONORABLE MENTION: No. 5 Montana (35-16 win over No. 3 Weber State); Northwestern State (31-28 win over Sam Houston State); No. 8 South Dakota State (38-7 win over No. 4 Northern Iowa); No. 21 Wofford (24-7 win over No. 9 Furman); Yale (51-14 win over No. 18 Princeton)
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