Jackson Namian ’25 stumbled through a throng of Dartmouth blockers and found himself wide open with a Jackson Proctor ’25 floater coming right at him.
Namian let Proctor’s pass drop into his hands, held it tight and fought for a few more steps as a University of Pennsylvania defensive back dragged him down.
Namian then threw his arm forward, flicked the ball to the ref and yelled in ecstasy.
“Come on, baby! Come on!”
Just a few plays later, a fired-up Dartmouth offense capped off the drive with a Chris Corbo ’26 touchdown.
Dartmouth struck first and didn’t relent in its 20-17 win over the University of Pennsylvania in the team’s first game of conference play on Saturday. The Big Green is now 3-0 on the season, its best start since 2021.
After going down 14-10 at halftime, Dartmouth rode its ground game and played near-perfect on third down to come back in the second half and clinch the victory. The Big Green converted nine of 12 third downs and rushed for 131 yards in the second half, scoring a touchdown and a field goal to put the game away. Desmin Jackson ’26, who filled in for an injured D.J. Crowther ’26, combined with starting running back Q Jones ’25 for 199 yards on the ground.
“We have a really deep running back room,” Jackson said. “You could put anyone in there, and they’ll perform at a high level. We just trusted the people in front of us to open up holes for us and then hit them with all we had.”
The Big Green’s final drive won the day, as it converted five out of six third downs and took 10-and-a-half-minutes off the clock, leaving Penn on its own one-yard line with no chance to respond.
“I told our team after the game, ‘You’re developing yourself an identity,’” head coach Sammy McCorkle said. “To be able to take that ball, hold onto that thing and drive the length of the field — that was critical.”
Three of those five conversions came on out routes to senior wide receiver Paxton Scott ’25, who finished the day with nine receptions on nine targets for 70 yards and a touchdown.
“[Scott and I] just have that connection,” Proctor said. “We’ve had it for the last couple of years. He’s been doing that for a long time. He comes up in clutch moments, and we definitely needed those three conversions to get there.”
In a standout performance, Proctor went 24-31 for 232 yards and a touchdown.
The defense also came up clutch, holding star Penn running back Malachi Hosley to 82 yards on the ground — the first time he hasn’t rushed for more than 100 yards since last October. Dartmouth also held Penn’s leading receivers Julien Stokes and Jared Richardson to a combined 54 yards.
“[The coaching staff] did a great job with the game plan and limiting them,” defensive back Jordan Washington ’25 said. “We executed at a high level — the whole defense as a whole — and went out there and did our stuff.”
Special teams continue to be a source of strength for the Big Green. Kicker Owen Zalc ’27, who notched a career-long 50-yard field goal last week and hit two more en route to being named Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week, went two-for-two on field goals on Saturday. He was perfect on extra points, hit a 42-yard field goal in the first half and followed up with a 39-yarder with 6:26 remaining in the game to put Dartmouth up for good.
Saturday was Dartmouth’s first game in the Buddy Teevens Stadium, which was renamed after the late head coach in a Friday ceremony. His legacy continues to inspire Dartmouth football, now 3-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play, as it pushes forward in the 2024 campaign.
“We wanted to make sure that we went out there and we represented Dartmouth the way that Buddy Teevens would have wanted us to represent it,” McCorkle said.
As the Big Green sang the Alma Mater along with a spirited crowd after Saturday’s win, it’s hard to argue they didn’t.
