DAYTON — The Dayton Flyers fell behind early and had a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter against the San Diego Toreros, but a pick-six sealed the game in a 40-25 loss Saturday afternoon in San Diego, CA.
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UD turned it over six times in the contest, leading to 27 Torero points.
USD led 33-10 at halftime before the Flyers battled to cut the deficit to 33-25 in the fourth quarter.
Dayton faced a 3rd and 11 at their 19-yard line when Cole Dow was intercepted by Eric Haney, and he returned it 27 yards for a touchdown.
UD falls to 2-2 on the season, and 0-1 in Pioneer Football League play.
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After the teams exchanged punts to start the game, Greg Sergent threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Josh Heverly to put San Diego ahead, 7-0. On the Flyers’ next series, Dow was intercepted by Rueben Mason and it led to an Isaiah Williams touchdown to increase the deficit to 14-0. Sam Webster’s 38-yard field put Dayton on the board, and they trailed, 14-3, after one quarter.
Logan Davis fumbled in the second quarter and Sergent threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Ja’seem Reed on the next play to increase the Torero lead to 21-3. Michael Neel fumbled on UD’s next series and Jerry Rangel recovered for San Diego. Williams’ 14-yard touchdown extended the deficit to 27-3.
Dow ran a quarterback keeper up the middle 20 yards for a touchdown and the Flyers trailed, 27-10. Right before halftime, Sergent found Isaiah Smith for a four-yard score and San Diego led, 33-10, at halftime.
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In the third quarter, Ca’ron Coleman blocked a punt and it led to a 15-yard touchdown catch by Alex Keathley and UD trailed, 33-17, after three quarters. The Flyers got a one-yard touchdown run by Dow and a two-point conversion to trail, 33-25. Aiden Lehman missed his second field goal of the day and Dayton had the ball with a chance to tie it with 4:50 remaining.
Dow faced a third and 11 but his pass for Joey Swanson was intercepted by Haney and returned it 27-yards to the end zone to seal the game.
Dayton’s next game will be Saturday, September 30, when they host St. Thomas at Welcome Stadium on UD’s annual Family Weekend game.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. and pre-game coverage starts at 12:30 p.m. on WHIO Radio. The game will also be carried here at WHIO.com.