Dartmouth College shocked pretty much everyone Saturday in beating Penn State in the opening round of the Varsity Cup.

“Nobody thought we would win,” said Dartmouth Head Coach Gavin Hickie, without a shade a bitterness. “Nobody, that is, except us.”

Penn State opened the scoring with a Jimmy Ronan penalty goal, but Dartmouth replied with a try from prop Will McNamara, which was set up by an interception from center Will Konstant. Curtis Oberg slotted the conversion for a 7-3 Dartmouth lead. Dartmouth kept up the pressure, and after a yellow card on Penn State for a dangerous tackle, Oberg hit a penalty for a 10-3 lead. Penn State replied, with Chris Burian going over after a nice sequence. Ronan converted to tie the game.

Dartmouth re-took the lead when flyhalf Dawit Workie sent a wiper kick across for No. 8 Hayden Aldridge to take in the air. That set up lock Arthur Sants for the try and a 15-10 Big Green lead at halftime.

In the second half, Ronan slotted a fairly easy penalty kick, but Dartmouth kept the cushion - wing Andrew Zhu racing in to make it 20-13.

And then the Penn State frustration really started to set in, as a late hit brought a red card, and put PSU down a man for the remainder of the game. Dartmouth scored another - Workie setting up Struan Coleman - to make it 25-13. But Penn State clawed back, scoring an impressive team try for Selby Niumataiwalu to cap off. It was a five-point game then, and Penn State had to put everything into it. A yellow card for a high tackle put the Nittany Lions down to 13 players, and once again Dartmouth made them pay, scoring to make it 30-20.

With time running out, Penn State flanker Malcolm May scored to make it a one-try game once more, but that was it. Dartmouth had won 30-25.

“We wanted to starve them of possession,” said Hickie. “We get overlooked for our set piece, but it’s good and we selected a pretty formidable pack. They won their scrums, but we put them under pressure. As a coach I don’t buy into the idea of giving the hooker a free pass.”

Keeping their defensive shape and pressuring on set piece, Dartmouth looked to force mistakes, and, said Hickie, “they were going to have to live of our mistakes.”

It worked, and it worked in part because Dartmouth scored a try relatively early in the game, and that bolstered the players’ self belief. 

Discipline certainly let Penn State down, but even so the Lions came back and were never really out of it. A little more patience on their part and a little more panic on the part of Dartmouth might have seen a different game.

But led by the tight five of Will McNamara,. Chris Banks, Jack Braun, Arthur Sants, and Struan Coleman three of whom scored tries, Dartmouth moves on to the second round of the Varsity Cup, and Penn State is left wondering what happened.

Dartmouth 30

Tries: McNamara, Sants, Coleman, Zhu, Other

Convs: Oberg

Pens: Oberg

Penn State 25

Tries: Burian, Nuimataiwalu, May

Convs: Ronan 2

Pens: Ronan 2