Dayton No. 3 In League

DAYTON -- The Bulldogs' choice was easy. Lose to Asotin, place fourth in the league and face the other Bulldogs in the playoffs, the ones from Colfax.

Or, beat Asotin, place third in the league and take a chance at the first playoff opponent.

"We knew we had to win that," Dayton's head coach Dean Bickelhaupt said about last Friday's game against the Panthers on their home turf. "I told them that with all the hard work they've done all season, they deserved it."

Dayton pounded out their 34-22 win against nevereasy to-beat Asotin, which missed its former quarterback Ben Servedius, who graduated this spring.

The Bulldogs now face the Ritzville Broncos away at 7 p.m. Friday in the face-off Dayton can win, Bickelhaupt said.

" They' re beatable. They're not as good as WP or DeSales," he said in comparison to the no. 1 and no. 2 teams in the league. "If we play our game like we can, we should be fine."

Dayton ended its regular season with a 5-3 record, the first time the team has been that successful since 2006. Ritzville was 7-1, having only lost to mighty Colfax. But that dominant team is one of the few in Ritzville's league that's really tough, so you can't judge the Bulldogs' and Broncos' strength by their season's numbers.

Bickelhaupt and his staff have been watching the films, which show a Ritzville team of average height and weight led by a sophomore quarterback prone to default to a "pistol" offense (more targeted than the shotgun play).

They'll have the home turf advantage and they will be tough, Bickelhaupt said. "But I think we can beat them.

"We've made it this far and we've been playing some pretty good football," he said. "We'll just keep pounding away."

That approach worked against Asotin Friday, giving the Bulldogs the upper hand from the start.

"We pretty much took it to them most of the game," Bickelhaupt said.

Dayton scored first through a 10-yard Hayden Fullerton-to-Wyatt Frame pitch pass in the end zone. Joey Schlachter, who struggled with the kick later in the game, made the extra point. There were some five minutes left in the first quarter.

The second unanswered touchdown came with 49 seconds left in the first quarter: a Fullerton rush for 18 yards. But the extra-point kick was no good. On the third score before the half, quarterback Colton Bickelhaupt rushed for 12 yards into the end zone, but failed in his 2-point conversion attempt, ending the half 19-0 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Asotin finally answered the onslaught halfway into the third quarter, when one of its defenders knocked the ball out of Bickelhaupt's arms before the Dayton quarterback got off his pass, causing a fumble which the Panthers took 50 yards into the end zone. A conversion added two extra points to make it 19-8.

On the Bulldogs' next possession, Isaiah Lambert first ran the ball down the field for 33 yards, then scored on a 17-yard run. But the kick failed again. Coach Bickelhaupt said Schlachter, who sprained his ankle in summer-league basketball, is getting better. He only recently started practicing and kicking again. Fullerton, the other kicker, got his toe stepped on in a recent game.

Three minutes into the fourth quarter, Asotin scored a second touchdown on a 2-yard pass play. The extra point made it 25-14 until Dayton's Logan Hays scored a 2-point safety.

But it wasn't the final word. Bickelhaupt picked off a pass and ran it back for another Bulldogs touchdown and this time Schlachter made the extra point.

At this point, both teams brought in their bench and Asotin scored their last touchdown with less than 1:30 to go in the game.

Both teams, each with a 2-2 league record and thus tied for third, had much to gain or lose from Friday night's outcome. The Panthers, who consequently placed fourth, face the Colfax Bulldogs in its first playoff game.

The only question mark for the Dayton Bulldogs going into Friday's playoff game against the Broncos is the health of defensive lineman Kroft Sunderland, who broke his hand in last Friday's game. Doctors will decide this week whether it's safe for him to start, Bickelhaupt said.

"It's big that he plays," he said.