No. 16 Dartmouth Breaks Through Against No. 6 Bridgewater-Raynham

Dartmouth's Cole Jacobsen talks the big win.

By Nate Weitzer (@nweitzer7)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – While they’ve lost several critical pieces from last year’s state championship winning team, the Dartmouth Indians have retained one fearless and versatile leader.

Senior quarterback Cole Jacobsen did a little bit of everything for No. 16 Dartmouth on Friday night, as he rushed for 182 yards, passed for 56 more, and came up with an interception during a 13-6 victory at No. 6 Bridgewater-Raynham.

This marks the Indians' first win over their conference rivals since 2008, prompting Jacobsen to admit, “This is an accomplishment that not many Darmouth High players have been able to get done.”
Crediting the play of his teammates on both sides of the ball, Jacobsen continued, “We prepared so well the whole week. We bought into what our coaches were saying. They knew everything [the Trojans] were going to run and we were ready for it. We knew we could stop them and it showed tonight.”

Indeed, Dartmouth (5-0) seemed to have a bead on the Trojans' run-first offense. The visitors held Bridgewater-Raynham (3-2) to just 62 rushing yards on 16 carries in the first half, while jumping out to a 13-0 lead, thanks to Jacobsen’s exploits.

Jacobsen, who also plays free safety, read the eyes of Trojan quarterback Corey Sullivan, and came up with a critical interception in the waning seconds of the first quarter.

On the first play of the second frame, he found teammate Luke Clarke for a 21-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring.

After Dartmouth’s loaded defense forced a punt, Jacobsen broke an incredible 72-yard touchdown run on third-and-long to make it 13-0 and break the 100-yard rushing mark before halftime.

On 3rd-and-10 Cole Jacobsen breaks a 72-yard TD run to put Dartmouth up 13-0 late Q2 @masspreps pic.twitter.com/1FSr3TpCVa

— Nate Weitzer (@nweitzer7) October 7, 2016

Running the read-option with tremendous success, Jacobsen generated all the offense the Indians would need, as their defense proved strong enough to pull out the win.

Dartmouth head coach Rick White explained, “We had some injuries up front and we knew that man-to-man we were not going to be able to block those guys. We had to spread them out if we wanted to win, and we made great reads in the option game.”

In the second half, Bridgewater-Raynham was able to get its ground game going to an extent, as Shawn Noel (12 carries, 33 yards, TD) rushed for an eight-yard score to make it a one-possession game, but the Trojans would not cross the Indian 30-yard line again.

Seniors Colin McCabe, Liam Caulfield, Valentino Aiello and Nolan Fonseca controlled the line of scrimmage, and linebacker Max Szteliga came up with an interception to essentially seal the game with under three minutes to play.

White praised Jacobsen’s leadership and growth since he became the starter last season. After all, the senior has now led Dartmouth to 13 straight wins, including a second consecutive state title last December.

But more than any single player, the veteran coach gave credit to his defense for this monumental victory.

“It’s pretty incredible,” White said about winning on the road against a vaunted Division 1A program. “I can’t say enough about our defense. To hold [Bridgewater-Raynham] to six points is almost impossible. I’m real proud of their effort, and then Cole Jacobsen was just the difference-maker tonight.”