Dayton Bulldogs Stymied By Asotin, 6-0

DAYTON - Four second- half turnovers and costly pen­alties at the most inopportune times doomed Dayton to a 6-0 defeat in its first league game last Friday versus Asotin.

Asotin stymied Dayton's offense the entire first half, rarely giving the Bulldogs a chance to possess the ball, let alone move it down the field.

The Bulldogs tallied a mea­ger 25 yards on only 15 plays. Meanwhile, the visiting Pan­thers racked up 127 first half yards on 32 plays, mostly on the ground. The few times the Panthers passed, the results were disastrous. Asotin quar­terback Erik Loseth finished the first half 2-of-6 for minus-2 yards and two interceptions.

Asotin put the games' only points on the board in its third possession. The Panthers started in Dayton territory at the 48. The drive looked over early when a Panther block-in- the-back negated a first down run by Ryan Schaefer, and put AHS in a second-and-18 situation.

Dayton gave the yardage right back with its first crucial penalty of the game-a 15- yard personal foul that gave the Panthers new life at the Dayton 41 and a second-and-short. Two plays later, Panther Day­ton Krull rushed over the right side for 13 yards and a first down. One play later, Schaefer rushed for another 22 yards to move the ball to the Bull­dog 5-yard line. Jacob Henry struck pay-dirt with a one-yard plunge on third-and-goal to give the Panthers the only six points they would need.

Dayton's second half start­ed promisingly when Asotin's kickoff almost went straight sideways and out-of-bounds at the Panther 48. But Day­ton gave the ball away two plays later when quarterback Lowden Smith coughed up a fumble that Asotin recovered at the Bulldog 46.

Consecutive big yardage rushes by Henry and Kyle Davidson pushed the Panthers to the Bulldog seven. Dayton's defense strengthened, how­ever, and on fourth-and-goal, the Bulldogs turned Krull's attempted run to the end zone into a one-yard loss that gave Dayton the ball on downs.

Three plays into Dayton's next drive, Kane Hackett lost his grip on the football. With its second lost fumble, Dayton gave Asotin first-and-10 from the Bulldog 20. In four plays, Asotin was knocking on the door, second-and-goal from the Bulldog 1-yard line. The Dogs turned away the first rush by Henry for no yards, then on the third down stripped the ball from Asotin quarterback Loseth's hands to take over at their own eight.

On its third possession of the half, the Bulldogs finally moved the ball and convinc­ingly. In nine plays, Dayton drove from its own eight to the Panther 18. Two key 15-yard penalties by the Panthers aided the effort, along with a gutsy fake punt that netted Dayton punter Wyatt Frame 34 yards and the netted the Bulldogs a first down at the Asotin 40.

The Bulldogs didn't stay on the 18-yard line for long. On the next play, another fumble by quarterback Smith that he recovered resulted in a 17-yard loss. One play later, Smith threw the ball to Asotin's Krull while attempting to hit Frame for his first interception of the half.

Dayton's defense forced another Asotin punt, but four plays into the next drive Schae­fer picked off Smith again setting up the Panthers at their own 30, with 8:05 to go in the game.

It was clear Dayton was running out of chances, and they began to play like it. Dayton blitzed the Panthers on three-straight plays sacking Loseth twice and stopping him for a 1-yard gain.

A horribly shanked Asotin punt gave Dayton great field position at the Asotin 37 with 5:58 left. However, a chop block on first down moved the ball 15 yards back to the Day­ton 48. Tailback Isaiah Lam­bert made up for all of those yards and more with a 26-yard run on the next play. Thanks to two more Lambert runs of 2 and 7 yards, a Smith 4-yard keeper, and a Hackett 9-yard rush, Dayton was sitting in the driver's seat, second-and-one at the Asotin four, with a game- winning or tying touchdown seemingly inevitable with 4:50 on the clock.

Then the wheels fell off.

Two players on the right side of Dayton's line jumped early pushing the team back five.

On second-and-six, Smith was sacked for a 6-yard loss on a roll out. On third-and-12, Smith's pitch to Lambert missed its mark; Lambert recovered the ball, but for a 13-yard loss.

On fourth-and-25, Dayton tried one final pitch to Lam- bert out of a passing formation that netted just three yards. Asotin took over, took a knee twice and ended the game.

Bickelhaupt's halftime ad- justments appeared to do the trick. Much of Asotin's first half rushing came on blasts right over center.

Dayton's next opponent is undefeated DeSales, a 48-0 winner over Mabton. They meet at 7 p.m. in Dayton this Friday.