As the Dartmouth offense gets stopped on third down in overtime, their freshman kicker jogs out to the 27-yard line. A field goal will give Dartmouth the win over the University of Pennsylvania in their Sept. 30 matchup, but a miss will continue the game. Dartmouth’s kicker, Green Hope class of 2023 graduate, Owen Zalc had complete confidence in that moment.
Owen Zalc, a four year starter for Green Hope felt that his time at Green Hope had allowed him the opportunity to be in this position, both athletically and academically.
With Zalc always emphasizing academics, he knew that going to an elite academic school would be a possibility. The moment that it became a real possibility was after he took the SAT his junior year. “When I took my first SAT test, Coach Green (Green Hope’s varsity football coach until spring of 2022) told me to start looking at some high academic schools, and added that Ivy League schools were not out of the question. After that, I started to focus my recruitment on high academic schools because I knew that it would help in the long run.”
To Zalc, another important factor when deciding his college was the opportunity to start as a freshman. “Being able to play as a freshman was a huge part. If you go to college to play football, you obviously want to get time on the field. So the opportunity [at Dartmouth] was a huge part and when they gave me the starting job it was great to be able to play as a freshman.”
His desire to play as a freshman would pay off. On Sept. 23, he made all six of his kicks, two field goals and four extra points. This stellar performance earned him Ivy League Rookie of the Week, an honor that goes to the best performance by a first year ivy league player. On earning the award, Zalc said “The award showed hard work paying off, it was the second week of the season so all the preseason camps, all the practices all the hours, all the kicks, everything put into that, it’s nice seeing that pay off with both a win and the award.”
Zalc followed his award winning week by making three of his four attempted field goals, with his lone miss being a blocked field goal in the first quarter, as well as making both of his extra point tries. The final field goal, a 37 yard try in overtime, was the deciding factor in the game.
When asked about his thought process before the overtime kick, Zalc commented “I was thinking about doing the same kick I always do, the kick was a 37 yard attempt, a kick I’ve been making since I was in seventh grade. Even though the situation and the score might be different, it’s the same kick every time.”
As Zalc’s kick went through the uprights, long snapper Josh Greene, picked up Zalc in celebration as the rest of the team ran to celebrate around them. On the celebration Zalc commented “It was great, everybody stormed the field, they were jumping up and down. We knew that it was going to be a tough game, so it was amazing with everybody celebrating. In the locker room there was a lot of yelling cheering and we also had the long bus ride home to celebrate.”
After his brilliant performance against Penn on Saturday, he was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the second consecutive week, an award that Zalc emphasizes he could not win without the help of the long snapper, the rest of the offensive line, and the holder.
