“He’s a great athlete,” Andrews said Wednesday. “We want to get the ball in his hands, and we wanted to get a little bit creative, and we were able to do that. He attracts a lot of attention when he’s running around.”
Dayton (6-2, 4-1) kept its Pioneer Football League championship hopes alive one week after losing 23-17 at home to Butler.
Dayton trails Drake (5-2, 4-0) by a half game and has a half game lead over Presbyterian (7-1, 3-1) and Butler (5-3, 3-1) with three games to play.
This week, Dayton travels across the country to play San Diego (4-4, 2-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday (1 p.m. in California).
The Flyers lead the series against San Diego 16-13, but San Diego has won the last six games against Dayton. Dayton last beat San Diego 13-12 in 2015 at Welcome Stadium.
At San Diego, Dayton has a 7-7 record. It has lost five straight road games in the series. In its last visit to San Diego in 2023, Dayton lost 40-25. Last year, San Diego won 16-10 at Welcome Stadium.
The trip will be a homecoming of sorts for Dayton’s one player from California, long snapper Austin Yeager, who’s from Mission Viejo, just south of Los Angeles. Yeager ended up at Dayton in part because his dad is from Huber Heights.
“It’s always great to be home,” he said. “My family only comes out for about two games a year, so for them to come out and see me play in person is awesome, especially when I’m gonna have some friends cheering us on. We’ll have, hopefully, a bit of a home-crowd feel with the people that I’ve got coming.”
San Diego won 40-28 at Davidson (1-7, 0-4) last week after losing 19-14 at Marist (3-5, 1-3) and 19-16 at home to Drake. It beat St. Thomas (5-3, 3-2) 30-27 in its PFL opener.
San Diego was the PFL preseason favorite after finishing second behind Drake last season.
“They’ve got a little bit different personnel than they’ve had in the past,” Andrews said, “and they’re figuring out how to put it together. They’re well coached. They do a great job out there. Kids play hard. They play extremely well at home. We haven’t won out there since 2010, so we’ve got our work cut out for us this week, for sure.”
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