The Flyers focused on fixing that issue throughout the offseason. That’s one reason the two early turnovers last weekend at Indiana State were so troublesome. Both resulted in defensive touchdowns as Dayton fell into a 14-0 hole. The deficit grew to 21-0 before Dayton got on the board early in the fourth quarter in a 24-13 loss.
“We competed really well,” Dayton coach Trevor Andrews said Wednesday. “I feel like the guys were ready. We had a couple of mistakes that ended up really hurting us, and it was tough to overcome against a team like that.”
“That’s a hard loss for sure,” tight end Alec Keathley said, “when you put up some big numbers offensively and you still let the defense down by letting them score a couple easy points there. But I think we’re looking forward to this week and want to go out with a bang going into conference play.”
Dayton (1-1) plays Ave Maria (1-1), a NAIA program from southwestern Florida, at noon Saturday at Welcome Stadium in its final non-conference game before eight Pioneer Football League games. The Family Weekend game will draw the biggest crowd of the season.
Dayton will hope for a better start than it had in its last game. An interception by quarterback Drew VanVleet and then a fumble by VanVleet led to two defensive touchdowns by Indiana State in the first half.
“Every (turnover) is different,” Andrews said, “so you’ve got to look at them differently. We work on that stuff all the time. We try to put them in positions so that they don’t do that in the game. We stress it and stress it.”
On the first interception, Andrews said VanVleet second-guessed himself on the pass and threw the pass to the inside receiver instead of the outside receiver. The pass was deflected, and Jorge Valdes returned it 90 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.
“The biggest thing with him is he’s got a big arm,” Andrews said, “and he needs to trust his arm. He knows that. We’ve got to get him through that growing pain.”
On the second turnover, Andrews said the left tackle fell down and Andrews was blind-sided by a hit in less than 2½ seconds. VanVleet fumbled after being sacked, and Garret Ollendieck returned the fumble 12 yards for a score.
“It’s not like we’re fumbling the football with our running backs and giving it up on contact,” Andrews said. “We’ve got to protect him for at least three seconds, and we didn’t get that done. It’s a team game. You can’t just put that on him.”
The interception ended a 10-play, 65-yard drive. Dayton didn’t move the ball into Indiana State territory again until its first touchdown drive in the third quarter. It scored touchdowns on two of its last four drives and had another drive end when it came up one yard short of converting on 4th-and-7 from the Indiana State 17-yard line.
The improved offensive play late in the game helped Dayton (1-1) build a bit of momentum for its third game.
Ave Maria lost 41-3 to Stetson in Week 1 and beat a National Christian College Athletic Association program, the University Fort Lauderdale, 31-7 last week.
This will be the first meeting between Dayton and Ave Maria. The game came about in part because Andrews has known Ave Maria coach Joe Patterson for 20 years
“We share a mutual booster with them,” Andrews said, “and Joe was up visiting him and stopped by and visited with myself and (Athletic Director) Neil (Sullivan). He expressed an interest in getting a game going, and we had an opening. They wanted to come up and play us.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Ave Maria at Dayton, Noon, 1290, 95.7
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