Dayton Wins 56-28 Despite Getting Outgained by Morehead State
Morehead State gained 376 yards. Dayton gained 363. Dayton won 56-28, so go ahead and ask how that works.
For three quarters, it was a real game. The score was tied four times (7-7, 14-14, 21-21 and 28-28), and Dayton was the team that kept going in front each time. Bryce Schondelmyer threw touchdowns of 4 yards to Luke Hansen and 21 and 32 yards to Gavin Lochow, Lochow added a 10-yard run in the third, and Morehead State's Jackson Lanier and Bryce Patterson answered every time with short scores plus a 20-yard Patterson touchdown pass to Cannon Dinger that made it 28-28 with 4:34 left in the third quarter.
Then it ended. Schondelmyer hit Michael Mussari from 4 yards with 39 seconds left in the third (35-28), Mason Hackett ran in from 3 yards with 9:35 left, and Paul Kelly returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown with 3:19 to play to make it 49-28. A 19-yard run with 1:04 left capped it. That is 28 unanswered points, and Morehead State never scored again after the tie.
Morehead State was all arm. Patterson threw 41 times for 350 yards, Dinger caught seven for 159, and the whole team rushed 27 times for 26 yards. They lost a fumble, and Dayton sacked them four times without a turnover of their own. The Flyers are 2-1 and Morehead State is 0-4.
In fantasy terms, this was a three-way tie at the top: Schondelmyer (32.6 points), Patterson (32.2) and Lochow (32.0) finished within six tenths of each other, which is about as close as three fantasy lines can get.