Dayton engineered a 15-play drive, got the go-ahead touchdown with seven minutes to play, and stole three interceptions from Morehead State as the Eagles fell 20-15 to the Flyers in a battle for first place in the Pioneer Football League Saturday at Jayne Stadium.
Dayton, which has won seven straight over MSU, moved to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the PFL. Morehead State, which saw a six-game home winning streak halted, slipped to 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference. Nineteen seniors were honored prior to kickoff in their final game at home.
The Flyers nabbed interceptions twice in the red zone and one at midfield on the Eagles' final possession. Dayton also blocked a pair of extra-point tries.
"We had so many opportunities missed, and I can start all the way back into the first quarter," said Head Coach Rob Tenyer. "I still feel like, even after walking out of the locker room after the game, that we had the better team out there. We just did not make the momentum plays today, and it was disappointing. We simply came up short."
The Eagles led 15-14 at the half and held that same advantage until the Flyers drove 83 yards in 15 plays, capped by a two-yard touchdown jaunt by Jack Adams, to grab the lead with 7:09 left. The march took 6:56 off the clock.
Morehead State had two more opportunities, but Danny Leach secured his second interception of the day with 2:34 remaining. He also picked off MSU junior signal-caller Austin Gahafer in the end zone at the beginning of the fourth period, and UD tallied an interception at the three-yard line in the third quarter.
MSU grabbed an early 9-0 lead on the strength of a 37-yard field goal by sophomore Shavi Bash at the 9:46 mark of the first quarter and a 29-yard Gahafer-to-Tanner Napier connection for a touchdown with 6:52 left in the opening period.
Dayton answered with a six-yard scoring run by Tucker Yinger two minutes later to make it 9-7, but freshman running back Brent Holman broke free on a 32-yard touchdown burst with 2:18 left before halftime to set the eight-point lead. UD scored with one minute left to trim its deficit to 15-14.
The MSU defense, which was led by Ryan Bennett's 14 tackles, limited the visitors to just 22 third-quarter yards as both teams fought to a stalemate and combined for seven third-quarter punts.
Gahafer was 27-of-46 for 323 yards, while UD quarterback Alex Jeske finished 19-of-28 for 186 yards. Adams led all players with 82 yards in the ground game. Napier hauled in a career-best 10 passes from Gahafer for 137 yards.
Senior linebacker Luke Keller chalked up 11 total stops, including 1.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Cameron Stubbs managed a team-best nine tackles for the Flyers.
"I told our team that we are going back to work tomorrow," Tenyer added. "There are a lot of great things we can still accomplish this year. We can still finish with a winning record."
Morehead State travels to Valparaiso next Saturday for a 2 p.m. ET kickoff versus the Crusaders. The Eagles wrap up the year on Nov. 21 at Marist.
