Dayton opens season with victory against St. Francis

“We’ve got to be disciplined,” coach Trevor Andrews said in the preseason, “and that’s with penalties of discipline — false starts and late hits and things that you can control. I’m not talking about holding and pass interference. I’m talking about the little pre-snap penalties and then taking care of the football. It’s just a priority, and you’re stressing it on every rep.”

Dayton didn’t play a perfect game in that regard Saturday in its season opener but led from start to finish in an 18-10 victory against St. Francis (Pa.) at Welcome Stadium.

“It feels good to start 1-0,” redshirt sophomore cornerback Cam Cope said. “We always talk about going one week at a time, and we got it done this week.”

The Flyers did lose two fumbles, an issue that plagued them last season, but recovered three as well and won the turnover battle. Neither team had an interception.

“You win the turnover battle, you’re going to win 80% of games,” Andrews said, “and even if it’s just plus one, if you hang on to the ball and you take it away, good things are going to happen.”

The Flyers committed eight penalties for 45 yards, while St. Francis had five penalties for a loss of 35 yards.

Dayton won its season opener for the fifth time in six years and for the first time in the Andrews era. Last season started with a 41-0 loss at Illinois State.

Dayton improved to 3-0 against St. Francis in the first meeting between the schools since 2001 and 2002, when Dayton won twice by a 109-0 margin.

Dayton capitalized on a St. Francis fumble to score its first touchdown, converting a short field into a 12-yard touchdown pass from Drew VanVleet to Gavin Lochow midway through the first quarter.

“I give it all to the big guys up front and that quarterback,” Lochow said. “He put it right on me. Easy catch for me. The big boys gave him time. It was beautiful.”

With 59 seconds left in the first quarter, Dayton extended its lead to 9-0. A tackle by linebacker Gideon Lampron in the end zone resulted in a safety.

“We all did our jobs,” Lampron said. “It was all because of our scheme and what we’ve been doing all season. We’ve ran that play and actually got a safety in practice. To see it translate to the game, it’s really remarkable.”

Lampron, a redshirt sophomore who started one game last season, also recovered the first St. Francis fumble. He forced two fumbles, led Dayton with 11 tackles and had a sack.

A 75-yard punt, the fourth-longest in school history, by first-year starter Logan Forcum helped lead to the safety. St. Francis started its drive at the 1-yard line.

Dayton took a 9-3 lead into halftime and stretched its advantage to 15-3 in the third quarter. VanVleet threw a lateral pass to Lochow, who found fellow wide receiver Luke Brenner streaking to the end zone for a 27-yard score.

“We’ve been working that a lot,” Lochow said. “It’s just funny, man. I love football. Love catching. Love doing whatever they need me to do. It’s fun.”

With 5:24 to play in the third, St. Francis scored its first touchdown. Markell Holman scored on a 1-yard run to cut Dayton’s lead to 15-10.

Dayton kicker Danny Baker, a punter last season, made his first career field goal with seven seconds remaining in the third quarter, giving Dayton an 18-10 lead entering the fourth.

In the fourth, Dayton benefitted from the Pioneer Football League instituting instant replay for the first time this season. On 1st-and-10 at the Dayton 40-yard line, Cope recovered a fumble along the sideline. The original call ruled he was out of bounds on the play

“Last year, we didn’t have replay in our league,” Andrews said. “We’ve got replay this year, and that probably won us the football game. Big help there. That was huge. I got to throw my red flag, so that was fun.”

The defense made the lead hold up but needed to slap down a desperation pass near the end zone in the final seconds to stop the last St. Francis threat.

Drew VanVleet, who started four games last season as a freshman, completed 15 of 22 passes for 129 yards for Dayton.

Luke Hansen gained 56 yards on 12 carries but left the game with an injury and did not play in the second half. Andrews doesn’t think Hansen has a serious injury. Sophomore Mason Hacket carried the load in the second half, gaining 56 yards on 18 carries.

Lochow led the receivers with eight catches for 55 yards. Brenner caught four passes for 39 yards.

Dayton does not play next week and returns to action at 6 p.m. Sept. 14 at Indiana State.