“It’s been a little bit of a rough year at Welcome Stadium,” senior offensive lineman David Tkatch said, “so we want to get back on track. We didn’t lose any games at Welcome Stadium last year, so this year, we really just want to finish strong and leave a good impression to finish off the year.”
“You want to send off your seniors with a win,” first-year coach Trevor Andrews said. “Those guys have been through it — blood, sweat, tears, all that stuff. They’ve invested a lot of time and effort in the program, and those guys are looking forward to playing their last home game. It’s an emotional time for them, but they’re mature. They’re veterans. They should be able to handle it pretty good. It’s usually more the moms we’ve got to worry about.”
Dayton sits alone in last place in the Pioneer Football League after losing 21-7 at Valparaiso (1-5, 2-7), which had been the only other PFL team without a league victory, last weekend. Dayton has not finished last in the PFL since 2006 when it tied with Valparaiso with a 1-6 mark.
The game against Marist is Dayton’s best chance to claim a PFL victory. Marist has lost back-to-back games to St. Thomas and Drake after a 4-1 start in PFL play. Dayton won 24-7 at Marist last season. In its final game next week, Dayton plays at Davidson (7-2, 6-0), which shares first place with Drake (6-3, 6-0).
If Dayton loses its last two games, it would be the worst season for the program since it was 1-8-1 in 1965, which was coach John McVay’s first season. With one victory in its last two games, Dayton would finish 3-7 for the first time since 1969.
Since league play began, Dayton has averaged 13.3 points per game, the worst mark in the conference. It’s giving up 28.1 points per game, the third-worst mark. It leads the league in turnovers with 21.
“We’ve got to not shoot ourselves in the foot,” Andrews said. “We’ve got to not have any penalties. Sometimes you sound like a broken record, but this league is so tight. Every game is winnable. It looks it comes down to plays at the end of the game, but there are plays that happen with penalties early in the game. As a head coach, it’s my job to make sure those things don’t happen. We’ve got to play disciplined football. We’ve got to move the chains. We’ve got to get stops. And we’ve got to play well on special teams. We can do those things. Anybody in this league can beat anybody. I’ve seen it. It’s been going on all year. We need to make sure that we take care of ourselves first.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Marist at Dayton, 1 p.m., 1290, 95.7
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