Confrontation in Hanover

This is really the most important game of the year for us We know Harvard always thinks about Yale first but we think of Harvard as our big rivals Brad Mont, football writer.   The Daily Dartmouth

This is going to be one of the most emotional football games. They'll have 10,000 people at a student body rally the night before, and then they're going to pack that little stadium for the game...We just have to be able to ignore all the side attractions.

--Harvard running back Scott McCabe

As far as the people at Dartmouth are concerned this afternoon's confrontation with Harvard is The Game

Classes officially ended at 12.30 yesterday afternoon in Hanover. Seven hours later, virtually everybody on campus turned out for a parade. At 8:30 p.m., the spirited throng gathered around a monstrous bonfire that the freshman class spent the week constructing.

By Ivy League standards, the display might seem a little extravagant, but the Hanoverians feel the commotion is justified.

For starters, this is Homecoming Weekend at Dartmouth. And even more importantly, although this series began exactly 100 years ago, today marks only the seventh time the Green and the Crimson have faced off in Memorial Stadium.

In the past, Dartmouth almost always traveled to its annual showdowns with both Harvard and Yale. Because Memorial Stadium holds only 20,000 and the other two schools can accommodate crowds nearly twice that size. Dartmouth athletic officials found the yearly road trips financially advantageous.

In the early '70s, however, attendance marks at New Haven and Cambridge dropped considerably, and consequently, the Green began hosting its rivals every other year.

History shows that Dartmouth has not capitalized on the home advantage, as Harvard has won four of the six previous match-ups at Memorial Stadium.

But two of those wins came in 1884 and 1946, and an updated look at the rivalry reveals that the Green won the last game in Hanover, 30-12.

In addition, the Crimson has not beaten Dartmouth since the fall of 1978, when every player in today's contest was still in high school.

Still, an even more recent history shows that the Green has an 0-4 season record while Harvard boasts a 3-1 slate.

Dartmouth supporters are quick to note that their team dropped decisions to three very tough non-conference opponents and that going 1-3 at the beginning of last season (0-3 non-conference) didn't stop Dartmouth from sharing the 1981 League title with Yale.

The fact remains, however, that Penn, Colgate, and William and MAry all racked up more than 400 yards total offense against the Big Green defense, with Colgate collecting a whopping 544.

Harvard, on the other hand, has contained enemy offenses to less than 400 yards in every game thus far, and last Saturday, Cornell managed only 133.

Despite several glaring contrasts between them, Harvard and Dartmouth are remarkably similar in one respect.

Both squads opened the season with two potential starting quarterbacks. The Green initially tapped Frank Polsinello, the junior who got his first varsity start in last year's Harvard game after a severe knee injury put the No. 1 QB, Rick Stafford, out of action.

Polsinello went on to lead the Green to five wins in six games and the 1981 co-championship, relegating Stafford, now a healthy senior, relegating Stafford, now a healthy senior, to the back-up slot this season.

But in the Green's 28-12 loss to Holy Cross, Polsinello suffered a separated shoulder that is expected to sideline him for the rest of the year.

A week before Polsinello's injury made Stafford a starter again. Harvard's No. 1 signal-caller, Ron Cuccia, broke a rib in the season-opener with Columbia Since then, Donnie Allard has adroitly guided Joe Restic's Multi flex.

Until last Saturday that is, when Allard sustained a bruised left collarbone in the first half of the Cornell game and relinquished his duties to reserve QB Jack Riordan.

Riordan practiced as the No. 1 quarterback all this, while Allard was unable to work out in pads. Allard did some throwing at practice, but he was still experiencing pain late in the week.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to start We'll just have to wait until Saturday and see," Allard said, adding. "We are hoping that the game won't depend on whether or not I can play. I think Jack's ready to start if he has to."

Neither Riodan nor Allard should have trouble moving the ball against what is possibly the worst defense in the Ivy League, but Dartmouth's offense could give the Crimson its biggest test yet.

If the Harvard line, which already has 16 sacks to its credit, gives Stafford any time, be will spend it looking for his favorite receiver, split end Jack Daly.

Daly, a junior has proven himself an exceptional receiver, with no fear of catching the ball in a crowd. When Dartmouth opts to stay on the ground, its chief threat is senior Co-Captain Sean Maher, a hefty tailback who rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns in last year's 24-10 Dartmouth win.

The match-up win also feature two of the League's best punters in Harvard's Jim Villauneva, who is leading the EcAc with a 40.3-Yards average, and Dartmouth's Rich Bayless, the 1981 first-team All-Ivy selection.

Kickoff is 1:30 p.m. Larry Kahn and Frank Mungeam of WHRB (95.3 FM) will broadcast live from Hanover

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard team Captain Greg Brown observed the other day: "Jack Daly's real first name is John, and our John Dailey [Crimson right cornerback] has to cover him. So it will be a match-up of the John Daileys [Dalys]." Dartmouth has two pairs of brothers on its roster: tailback Pat and defensive back Pete Lavery of Arlington, Mass. and starting noseguard Mike and former starting fullback (out with a knee injury) Rich Lena. The Lenas live next door to Harvard defensive end Joe Margolis in Woodbridge, Conn. The trio played high school ball together, and in 1978, their school won the Connecticut state championship.