Ivy Notebook | Leopards top the Ivy League?

This Saturday, two teams with perfect Ivy records will meet with the goal of maintaining their unblemished record against Ancient Eight teams.

The matchup is between Harvard and … Lafayette?

Although the Leopards certainly aren’t eligible to win the Ivy League trophy, Lafayette, with a 3-0 record against teams in the conference, would theoretically be half a game ahead of Harvard in the league standings.

The past three weeks, the Leopards have faced Penn, Yale and most recently Columbia. And each time they came away with victories.

Sandwiched between two narrow home victories over the Quakers, 20-17 in overtime, and the Lions, 24-21 on a last-second touchdown, Lafayette dominated Yale, 31-14, at the Yale Bowl.

Although the players are focusing on their own Patriot League, they still believe playing the Ancient Eight will help their own conference run.

“I think this helps build our confidence to keep playing well, especially against these tough Ivy League guys,” Lafayette senior quarterback Rob Curley told The Lafayette after dispatching Columbia.

The lowest of lows. After its most recent loss, 38-7 to Yale, Dartmouth has now dropped 16-straight games.

Because they have games against the top two Ivy teams plus a non-conference matchup with No. 25 Holy Cross on the slate for the next three weeks, there is a chance the Big Green will be 0-7 heading into their final three games.

If they want to end the streak before October ends, they’ll have to play significantly better than they did against the Bulldogs. The Big Green only managed 127 total yards, which is the lowest they have gained since totalling 123 against Harvard last season.

Although it gave up 520 yards over the course of the game, the Dartmouth defense actually played very well in the first quarter as it did not allow Yale to score. Then the flood gates opened in the second quarter, as Yale scored on six of its next eight drives stretching into the fourth quarter.

At the same time, the loss couldn’t be completely chalked up to poor talent. The Big Green’s offensive leader, senior quarterback Alex Jenny, was hurt on the first Dartmouth drive of the second quarter. The right-hander dislocated the elbow on his throwing arm and will miss the Holy Cross game Saturday.

His replacement Saturday, sophomore Conner Kempe, didn’t have the best game, going 6-for-12 for 37 yards with a pick and a touchdown. However, he started three games last year and has a fairly solid pedigree.

Kempe also has personal motivation to lead the Big Green back to glory: He spurned offers from Harvard and Penn.

Notes from around the League. Harvard coach Tim Murphy earned his 100th win as the Crimson coach Saturday with the 28-10 victory over Cornell.

He became the second Harvard coach to do so after his predecessor Joseph Restic had 117 wins. Eight other Ivy coaches have accomplished this feat, including Penn’s Al Bagnoli whose 116 wins at Penn are the most of any active League coach at his current institution.

… Harvard held Cornell to 62 rushing yards Saturday. It was all too familiar for the Big Red who had rushed for just one yard more in a 45-23 loss to Colgate the week before.

… In his first start against a ranked opponent, Brown’s Kyle Newhall set an Ivy League record with 46 completions. Previously, the record’s top two spots were also held by Bears quarterbacks: Kyle Slager was No. 1 with 44 and James Perry and Michael Dougherty shared second place with Yale’s Joe Walland at 42.

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