College Football: Furious Flyers rally falls just short vs. San Diego

The Dayton Flyers nearly overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter, but came up short in a 36-34 loss to defending Pioneer Football League champion San Diego.

After thwarting the Toreros’ opening drive with a blocked field goal, Dayton opened the scoring on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Jack Cook to Ryan Skibinski.

“It’s a wide receiver screen,” Skibinski said. “The line got a block on the corner, and once I was in the clear, I was just able to outrun them.”

San Diego missed another field goal, and even when the Toreros scored on a touchdown pass from Anthony Lawrence to Christian Brooks, the Flyers kept the lead by blocking Aedan Johnson’s extra point.

Dayton widened the lead to 14-6 on a 9-yard run by Cook, but San Diego ran off 17 unanswered points, aided by two bad breaks for the Flyers.

Trailing UD 14-13, San Diego was forced to punt. The ball nicked the leg of a Dayton player with the Toreros recovering at the Flyers 2-yard line. Emilio Martinez bulled into the end zone on the next play to give San Diego a 20-14 lead.

As the first half was winding down Dayton appeared to have stopped San Diego on the 8-yard line as time expired. But the Toreros were granted a timeout with 1 second remaining and Aedan Johnson’s chip shot field goal gave San Diego a 23-14 halftime lead.

Dayton cut the lead to 23-21 on a Cook pass to Adam Troutmann, who made a spectacular one-handed catch in the end zone between two defenders..

San Diego responded with two scores, and a 74-yard TD pass from Lawrence to Michael Bandy appearing to be the back breaker.

Dayton did not fold. Skibinski caught his second TD pass on the day, and when Trautmann hauled in his second highlight reel grab in the corner of the end zone, the Flyers had a chance to tie with 2:44 to play.

However, the two point conversion failed, as did an onside kick attempt. Dayton’s defense could not come up with a stop and the Toreros ran out the clock to extend their PFL wining streak to 24 games.

“When their quarterback needed to make a play, he made it,” Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin said. “ We let him get away.”

Both offenses put up big numbers. San Diego had 609 total yards, while Dayton ran up 497. Cook finished with a new career high and school-record 432 yards passing. Skibinski totaled 117 receiving yards.

“We fought all four quarters,” Skibinski said. “This team has a lot of heart.”

That heart will be tested. At 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the PFL, the Flyers are realistically eliminated from a shot at a league title.

“It needs to be a pride thing, “ Chamberlin said. “We need to focus on finishing better than last year.”

Dayton hosts Drake on Saturday at Welcome Stadium.

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