Sports in brief

Football bounces Big Green, stays alive in title hunt

The Harvard football team earned its first shutout since the 2004 season this past Saturday (Oct. 28) with a 28-0 blanking of Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. It was business as usual, however, for Crimson tailback Clifton Dawson ’07.

Against the Big Green, the senior rushed for 164 yards on 26 carries for three touchdowns, including a 74-yard run on Harvard’s first play of the game. Dawson’s latest feat represented his sixth three-touchdown effort of the season (and 19th TD of the season) as he advanced to third place on the Ivy League’s career rushing chart with 4,542 yards. He stands 173 yards shy of the all-time record.

In a mammoth performance against the ball, senior defensive tackle Michael Berg recorded seven tackles, a sack, a pair of forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery. For his efforts, the league selected Berg its defense player of the week (along with safety Scott Williams of Pennsylvania).

The win – taken together with Princeton’s surprising 14-7 loss at the hands of Cornell – keeps the Crimson (6-1; 3-1 Ivy) in the hunt for at least a share of the Ivy title. Only first-place Yale, whom the Crimson host Nov. 18 to close out the season, remains unbeaten in Ancient Eight action.

Vaillancourt scores hat trick, and then some

Newly returned to the women’s hockey lineup after her yearlong absence to partake in the 2006 Olympic Games, forward Sarah Vaillancourt ’09 netted four goals and an assist to pace the Crimson to a 10-0 conquest of Union College this past Sunday (Oct. 29) at Bright Hockey Center. Coming off an 11-0 victory versus Rensselaer the previous afternoon, the No. 7 Crimson outshot the Dutchwomen 64-12 to improve to 2-0-0 on the young season.

Soccer men win seven in a row, eye on Lions

The Harvard men’s soccer team won its seventh straight outing this past Saturday (Oct. 29) with a 3-1 effort over host Dartmouth to stay alive in the Ivy title hunt. The Crimson, ranked 19th in the latest Adidas/National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, tallied three consecutive second-half goals against the Big Green to improve to 12-4-0 overall and 5-1-0 in Ancient Eight play. With just one regular season game remaining on their schedule (a Nov. 4 meeting with visiting Columbia), the Crimson can clinch the league title outright – a feat last accomplished by Harvard a decade ago – with a victory against the Lions (7-7-2; 0-4-2 Ivy). A tie, meanwhile, would hand the Crimson a share of the league title with Pennsylvania.