Bulldogs’ Defense Getting Better

ATHENA - It seemed so close, yet it remained so far away. The End Zone became an obsession for the Bulldogs in their game against the Weston McEwen Tiger­Scots Thursday night. Sev­eral times, they came within yards of it but never made it across the goal line for an of­ficial score. When the Bulldogs did break the plane, the play was called back because of an of­fensive holding penalty. Dayton's struggle in the Red Zone was one of the rea­sons the Bulldogs lost 25-2. But those numbers didn't reflect the progress the team has made in the last three games. Had they converted instead of given up on downs, the game would have been much closer, particularly with the gutsy gamble of going for touchdowns in­stead of field goals on fourth downs. "That's what we need to take care of: getting the ball into the end zone when we're in the red zone," Dayton's head coach Dean Bickel­haupt said. Shaken up at first by a 74-yard touchdown run from the TigerScots in the opening minutes of the first quarter, the Bulldogs made a much better showing on defense than the previous two games - even without fullback Dain Henderson who suffered a slight concussion in the pre­vious week's game against the Enterprise Outlaws. "I'm very pleased with the defense," Bickelhaupt said.

The Bulldogs' defense has been responsible for shrinking the margin of the Bulldogs' loss in each of the three games. They lost 48 - 7 against the StanfieldTigers, a 41-point spread, and 34 - 0 against the Outlaws. The defensive line held W-M on several critical drives, averting additional scores against them. On the TigerScots' second possession, Joey Schlachter blocked a pass by W-M quarterback Dallas Reich, who threw a subsequent pass that was intercepted by Wyatt Frame.

Aided by TigerScots pen­alties, the Bulldogs held Weston-McEwen on their third possession and took over on downs with two min­utes to go in the first quarter. On the Bulldogs' third pos­session, Josh Frame rushed 30 yards, followed by Albert Yacovelli for 11 yards. But once in the Red Zone, Day­ton could not convert. Quar­terback Colton Bickelhaupt threw an incomplete pass in the end zone.

The Bulldogs' defense al­lowed only one more touch­down before the half and no two-point conversion.

The second half had a painful start for the Bulldogs when Logan Hayes was struck late by a TigerScot after signaling a fair catch on the kickoff return. This seem­ingly unsportsmanlike con­duct earned the W-M player calls from the Dayton crowd for his removal from the rest of the game. But since inex­perienced

defensive players do not always watch for the fair-catch sign, the play may not have been intentional. Still, Hayes stayed down elhaupt, but he sustained no lasting injuries. Josh Frame, who had 11 carries for 30 yards, brought the ball to the TigerScots' 27 yard line for a first down, fol­lowed

by Hayden Fullerton who rushed for another first down, but again the Bulldogs could not convert, throwing an incomplete pass on third down and fumbling the ball on fourth.

On W-M's next posses­sion, TigerScot Elliot Salter ran 68 yards for a third touch­down,

but the TigerScots again failed to get the extra two points against the Day­ton defense. Another Tiger­Scots touchdown brought the score to 25 - 0 by the end of the third quarter. It was a 17-yard throw from Reich to wide receiver Aaron Speed.

Opening the fourth quar­ter, the Bulldogs drove the pig skin downfield only to allow two sacks of their quarterback, setting up fourth down and 12. Bickelhaupt completed a pass to Fullerton on the five-yard line, but it was short of the first down Dayton needed.

In another sign that Day­ton's defense was better at scoring than its offense, Yacovelli made the team's only points with a safety on a quarterback sack, putting the Bulldogs on the board 25-2.

The next Dayton drive again looked promising, with Isaiah Lambert returning the kickoff to the 30-yard line. Bickelhaupt completed a pass to Schlachter for another first down, but got sacked, bringing up second and 17, and eventually fourth and 5. At that point, Bickelhaupt threw an incomplete pass and turned over the ball to M-W on downs.

The Bulldogs allowed 179 TigerScots rushing yards compared to its own 133 yards, but gave up 195 pass­ing yards compared to its own 62. Coach Bickelhaupt said some of the newer players executed the option plays poorly, putting more pres­sure

on Bickelhaupt who was sacked several times. Though the Bulldogs are "holding their heads high and working hard," the team's Red Zone struggles "are disheartening" and cost the team its all-important momentum during the game, Bickelhaupt said. Still, the team showed improvement defensively and, to a lesser degree, offen­sively, making Bickelhaupt optimistic about the rest of the season and the next game against Tri Cities Prep on Fri­day,

Oct. 1, when Henderson should be back in the lineup.

"I see good things hap­pening and I think we need to stay focused on them," he said. "It will be a competitive game for us."

Dayton vs Weston-McEwen

2-25

Rushing

Josh Frame, 11 for 37

Albert Yacovelli, 5 for 41

Colton Bickelhaupt, 9 for 17

Hayden Fullerton, 2 for 17

Lowden Smith, 3 for 5

Total: 117 yards

Passing

Colton Bickelhaupt 5/13 for 59 yards

Receiving

Hayden Fullerton, 1 for 10

Joey Schlachter, 3 for 39

Isaiah Lambert, 1 for 10

Total: 59 yards