The Stetson Hatters came into Saturday's game at Spec Martin Stadium with a primary objective of forcing the visiting Dayton Flyers to throw the ball.
The Hatters were successful, shutting down the nation's top rusher, Connor Kacsor, by holding him to 61 yards on 24 carries, but the Flyers made up for that throught the air as Alex Jeske threw for 223 yards and three touchdowns.
The result was Dayton defeated Stetson 27-14 to remain undefeated on the season. The Flyers are a perfect 4-0 overall, and 1-0 in the Pioneer Football League.
Stetson quarterback Ryan Tentler threw for 198 yards and one touchdown for the Hatters (1-4), who dropped to 0-2 in league play.Tentler also ran for 90 yards and a touchdown, giving him a combined 288 total yards of offense.
As a team, Stetson held a 330-280 advantage in total yards, but two interceptions and two turnovers on downs proved costly.
"We did not win the turnover battled and that killed us early in the game," Hatters coach Roger Hughes said. "When you are playing teams with more experience than you, you have to find an edge somehow to create a short field, and we didn't. Had we not given up the long interception and run back, putting our defense in a really bad position, it is essentially a three-point game at halftime."
After an early Dayton field goal, Chris Searles 71-yard interception return late in the first quarter set up Jeske's first touchdown throw, a three-yard completion to Tyler Tumpane.
“They were in man-to-man coverage and we just had a dig route," Tentler said of the interception. "I had Chris (Crawford) read off his break and threw it, but he got pushed down, or stumbled, and once he went down there was nothing he could do. The corner just stood there and caught the ball.”
Stetson answered with six-play, 75-yard drive, capped off by Tentler's 35-yard scamper into the endzone, cutting the Flyers lead to 10-7. He said the running he did was partially planned, and partially ad libbed.
“To be honest, we planned on it a little because we really didn't know how out young line would hold up," Tentler said of his offensive line, which started three freshmen. "We wanted to see how well those guys could flush them out so that I could step up and hit the check down. They did a good job, defensively, of covering our check downs, which left me wide open to run.”
After the Hatters' scored, Dayton put together a drive in the middle of the second quarter that took advantage of a pair of Stetson defensive mistakes, one on third down and another on second and long.
“They had some guys running wide open and, I won't call them lucky plays, but they were just throwing the ball up," Hatters safety Donald Payne said. "It was crazy how three plays could have changed the entire outcome of the game.”
Jeske's connected with Jack Euritt for a 14-yard touchdown pass to push the Flyers' lead to 17-7 at halftime.
Dayton got the ball back to start th second half and the Flyers needed just eight plays to go 75 yards, with Jeske hitting Gus Madden for a 29-yard touchdown to push the lead to 24-7.
"We had a shot in the game and, had we stopped them right there, we had a chance to get it back to a one-possession game," Hughes said. "If there was a deflating moment, that was the one because you have to change your game plan then. Now you have to get three scores and you can't pound it, be conservative and play field position. You have to take your shots down the field to try to create a big play.”
The Flyers added to their lead with a 13-play drive later in the third quarter, settling for a 25-yard field goal to build a 27-7 lead. It was during that drive that the Hatters were flagged for a personal foul and that corner Chris Atkins was out of the game, throwing up on the sideline.
"I was proud of their effort," Hughes said of the defense. "If we practice the way we did this week, we will have a chance every week. We would have done better had we not had a stupid penalty to keep a drive alive. We would have done better if we could have gotten off the field on third down in a couple of crucial situations where we had them third and long and gave it up. That is where we have to improve on defense."
The Hatters rallied in the fourth quarter but just ran out of time. Tentler connected with Crawford on an eight-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 27-14 with 11:43 to play.
Stetson's defense then converted a three-and-out as Marlin Hall sacked Jeske for a seven-yard loss on third down. The Hatters took over on their own 26, and after one first down, Tentler narrowly missed connecting with Ja'Vonta Swinton with a home run pass down the middle of the field. The drive resulted in a punt, and the Flyers held on the rest of the way.
Crawford finished the game with seven catches for 63 yards, while Darius McGriff caught four passes for 52 yards.
Payne led the Stetson defense with 16 tackles, including two for loss. He also had two QB hurries. Hall finished with two sacks and Davion Belk added one. The Hatters held Dayton to just 57 yards rushing on 41 attempts (1.4 yards per carry).
"After the game, I told them that this game is hard because of how hard you have to play every day to have a chance to win," Hughes said. "When you put it all on the line and don't win, it is easy to get discouraged.
"There is no other sport that demands the effort and physicality that this does, and sometimes there is very little payoff at the end. The only way you get that payoff is not to stop what you are doing, but to find ways to keep doing it better and find ways to keep the intensity.”
The Hatters will visit another undefeated team, Jacksonville, next Saturday, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.
