Oct. 23, 2004
NEW YORK - Nick Rudd booted three field goals to become Columbia's career leader in made field goals as Columbia defeated Dartmouth, 9-6, at in front of 4140 fans at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. It was the fewest points allowed by a Columbia defense since shutting out Harvard to open the 1998 season.
Rudd broke a 6-6 tie with a 19-yard field goal at 13:15 of the fourth quarter. It was the 21st of his career, and passed the previous school record of 20 set by Miro Lovric '83 and later tied by Tom Boccafola '92. Rudd had tied the record with a 31-yarder at 6:24 of the second quarter for a 6-0 lead. He opened the scoring with a season-long 39-yarder at 6:07 of the first quarter, marking the first time this season the Light Blue had put points on the board in the first quarter.
Rudd said after the game, "I'm always confident in my ability, but I think I gave the team more confidence in me. I didn't do anything special; I just did my job."
Dartmouth's lone score came on a one-yard quarterback keeper by Charlie Rittgers, who tied the score 6-6 at 2:37 of the third quarter. The Big Green missed its opportunity to take its first lead of the game when the extra point attempt sailed wide left. Dartmouth struggled with its kicking game, as the visitors missed field goals of 46, 48 and 41 yards.
In addition to Rudd, the Lion defense was the story of the day as it produced its second stalwart effort in as many weeks. The Lions yielded just 222 total yards and 11 first downs on the day. Dartmouth quarterback Charlie Rittgers, who averaged 252.4 yards per game entering today, threw for 147 and two interceptions, one by Shay Murphy and one by Tad Crawford. Co-captain Chuck Britton pursued Rittgers all afternoon and totaled 12 tackles, including two for a loss, and broke up a pass. Ryan Armbrust posted nine tackles and had one of two Lion sacks; Paul Hlavaty had the other.
The Lions had a key stop late in the fourth quarter as the Big Green moved the ball to the Columbia 36 on a third and five in the closing two minutes of the game. However, the Light Blue stopped Dartmouth on its final two chances, and C.U. took over on downs and ran out the clock.
"I talked to the defense about stringing together two defensive games in a row," said head coach Bob Shoop. "I called the game a lot differently. I was a lot more aggressive. We blitzed on almost every play."
The defense appears to have accomplished that mission. Columbia's 20 points allowed over the last two games is the fewest yielded by a Columbia defense over two games since the 1998 team gave up 10 points to Cornell and Brown on succesive weeks to end the season.
While the Lions' offense drove deep into Dartmouth territory on two occasions and inside the Big Green 20 three times, it could not produce a touchdown. An apparent four-yard touchdown reception by Wade Fletcher in the first quarter was called back on offensive pass interference. Fletcher had nine catches for 118 yards, and Brandon Bowser and John Reuter had five catches apiece.
Quarterback Jeff Otis completed 24 of 39 passes for 269 yards to pass Archie Roberts '65 for fifth on Columbia's all-time passing yardage list. Otis, who now has 3903 career yards, needs 127 to catch Bruce Mayhew '91 for fourth. With 365 completions, Otis needs 11 to catch Mayhew for fourth on the career completion list, 14 to catch Marty Domres '69 for third, and 21 to catch Jeff McCall '02 for second.
"We had tremendous team effort," noted Shoop. "Jeff was good when he had to be. We have to be a second-half team the second half of the season."
Columbia is back in action at Yale next Saturday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m.
