42-6 and even

HANOVER – It's all even now.

The University of New Hampshire football team leveled Dartmouth 42-6 in front of 4,427 at Memorial Field yesterday to even the series for the first time since 1901. Yes, 1901.

That's when these teams first played and Dartmouth won the first game 51-0.

Dartmouth won the first 16 games in the series and New Hampshire has now won the last 11 and is 16-0-2 since its last loss in 1976. The series, with three games to go before the contract ends in 2011, is 17-17-2.

Yesterday was all UNH.

The 4-0 Wildcats, ranked No. 7 in the country, led 28-0 at halftime and scored again on their first drive of the second half.

"I thought we were a little overwhelmed," said Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens. "We were wide-eyed as an offensive group. We play a lot of young players and it was, 'Man, we're playing the No. 7 ranked team, in the country.' And we didn't respond well."

UNH is off next weekend. then William & Mary comes to town on Oct. 4.

With its big lead at the half, UNH coach Sean McDonnell urged his team to close out the game strongly, said senior captain and offensive guard Erc Cumba.

"We wanted to finish the game off so we could go out on a high, so we're rolling into the bye week," Cumba said.

Dartmouth drops to 0-2 for the season and plays its first Ivy League game at Penn next Saturday.

►Click here to visit Allen Lessels' 'Tracking the 'Cats' blog

UNH doubled up Dartmouth in offensive yardage in the game, 525 yards to 238.

The Wildcats played without starting running back Chad Kackert, who had arthroscopic surgery on his knee on Friday. The offense had near-perfect balance between run and pass yardage with 260 passing 265 rushing.

"I thought it was a very good effort on our part," McDonnell said.

UNH had scored three rushing touchdowns coming into the game. They had five yesterday.

Sophomore quarterback R.J. Toman completed 17 of his 23 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown and also ran for a score. Redshirt freshman Kevin Decker saw his first action at quarterback, spelling Toman on several plays early and then taking over in the fourth period, and completed five of sev en passes for 52 yards. He also threw an interception.

McDonnell cited the work of running backs Sean Jellison and Bobby Simpson and the offensive line, the punting of Tom Bishop that helped give the Wildcats a wide edge in field position early, the pressure the defense put on Dartmouth quarterback Alex Jenny. And various other aspects of UNH's game.

Teevens, in turn, was pleased with the way his team regrouped in the second half.

New Hampshire dominated the first half.

The Wildcats rolled up 310 yards of offense -- 178 through the air and 132 on the ground -- and allowed Dartmouth only 92 yards.

Terrance Klein and Ryan McGuinness each intercepted Jenny in the first half.

Jellison scored a couple of first-period touchdowns and Travis Negron and Toman added scores in the second period and it was 28-0 at the break. All the touchdowns came on the ground.

UNH running back Sean Jellison, of Amherst, bursts through the Dartmouth defense yesterday. (AP)

Jellison opened th e scoring with a four-yard touchdown run the first time he touched the ball just past the halfway mark of the period. The next time he touched the ball he scored on a 16-yard run in the last minute.

"I thought the running backs ran very, very hard," McDonnell said.

Negron scored on a 6-yard end around with 6:21 left in the half and Toman kept and went in untouched from four yards out with 2:15 to go.

UNH upped its lead to 35-0 on a Toman to Terrance Fox scoring pass that covered 18 yards midway through the third period.

Dartmouth got on the scoreboard on a Jenny to Phil McKeating 3-yard pass play with 24 seconds left in the third period.

Simpson added a 5-yard touchdown run with 4:18 left to close out the scoring and send UNH on to its week off and the Big Green on to Penn.

Count Teevens as impressed. He said the Wildcats get after people on defense more than in the past and thinks they are better than last year.

"They're a very solid outfit," he said. "They'll be in the top five easily in my opinion. They're solid up front. They have a solid quarterback. I like the running backs. They have good receivers. They put up a lot of points on a lot of people and I think the defense will probably keep getting better over time."