College Football: Big third quarter sneds Dayton Flyers past Davidson

The Dayton Flyers enjoyed their most prolific Pioneer Football League offensive showing of the season in a 48-22 rout of Davidson on Saturday, posting highs in points and total yards (501).

After falling behind 3-0, Dayton (3-5, 2-3) took its first lead on a 15-yard run by Tucker Yinger, then added two more scores on TD passes from Alex Jeske to Adam Trautman and Matt Tunnacliffe, the latter coming with eight seconds to play in the first half for a 21-12 lead.

“That gave us some big momentum,” coach Rick Chamberlin said. However, he was not happy with his defense and kept the Flyers in the locker room an extra long time before coming out to start the second half.

“I thought we lacked intensity,” he said. “We were lethargic. We weren’t physical enough. Our tackling was atrocious.”

The second half began badly for Dayton with William Wicks returning the kickoff to the Flyers’ 15-yard line, where Jason Balogh made a touchdown-saving tackle.

Perhaps inspired by Chamberlin’s halftime talk, Dayton forced Davidson (2-5, 0-4) to settle for a field goal. Then the Flyers blew the game open.

On the next play from scrimmage, Yinger raced 71 yards for a touchdown. “I think Be Gathier picked up the blister and I never got touched,” Yinger said.

Three plays later, Jack Crain took an interception 34 yards for another UD score. Christian Searles broke up the pass to deflect the ball to Crain.

“I probably owe Christian a milkshake for that,” Crain said. “He made the play.”

This was Crain’s fourth game playing with a cast to protect his broken right thumb, but the first in a smaller one that kept his fingers free.

“As I was running towards the end zone I started to cradle the ball in my right hand, and then remembered to switch it,” he said.

The casted hand came into play again on Davidson’s next possession when Crain recovered a fumble.

“It was a botched handoff,” he said. “I saw the ball on the ground. It was hard grabbing it, but I was able to hang on.”

The Flyers cashed in with Cole Kaparos completing a 28-yard drive with a 7-yard TD run. He added another touchdown from one yard out to complete the third-quarter explosion in which the Flyers scored 27 points, while the Dayton defense allowed three points and 36 total yards.

Yinger had his sixth game rushing for over 100 yards with 135. Jeske was 15 of 22 passing for 223 yards. Adam Troutman had 5 catches for 74 yards

Dayton is home Saturday to host Butler.

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