Comebacks are becoming the norm for the University of Dayton football team.
The Flyers rallied in the second half for a third straight game Saturday to remain undefeated with a 31-27 win over first-year Football Championship Subdivision foe Kennesaw State in front of 2,512 fans at Welcome Stadium.
Dayton (3-0), playing a rare night game at home, shut out the Owls (3-1) in the second half to keep them from becoming just the second first-year FCS program since 2008 to go 4-0. The Flyers had fallen behind 13-0 in the first five minutes.
“It’s what we’ve been stressing all year is playing relentlessly and coming out here and finishing games,” said cornerback Cameron Stubbs, who had two interceptions and 136 yards on four kick returns. “It’s not about the first half, which we learned last year, and now it’s all about the second half. Nobody stresses. … We’re just going to play our hearts out ‘til we win.”
It took some big plays by the defense to give the Flyers the spark they needed offensively after trailing 27-21 at halftime.
Dayton took its first lead at 28-27 with 1:30 left in the third quarter after forcing a three-and-out following a goal-line stand by the Owls. Connor Kacsor, who was stopped on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 the previous possession, ran it in from three yards out for his third and final touchdown to cap a 14-yard scoring drive set up by a Christian Searles punt return.
Kacsor finished with 229 yards on 44 carries for his second consecutive game rushing for more than 200 yards.
“One-yard line and you can’t get it in, you start questioning yourself, but Christian had that huge punt return and to come out and put the ball in the end zone, it was an incredible feeling,” Kacsor said. “We didn’t look back from there.”
The defense came through again the next series when Stubbs intercepted KSU quarterback Trey White for the second time at the start of the fourth quarter. The Flyers carried the momentum into the red zone, but settled for a 37-yard field goal by William Will to extend their lead to 31-27 with 8:15 remaining.
Kennesaw State turned it over on downs on the ensuing drive, giving Dayton the ball back with under five minutes to go, and that sealed it. The Flyers moved the ball down field and were able to run out the clock.
“They don’t panic, no matter what happens,” Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin said. “First drive of the game we turn it over and then they run back an 80-yard touchdown, a lot of teams could panic. Then they kept moving the ball — we were moving the ball, but we weren’t making some plays — so the key was staying poised. We believe in what we’re doing.”
Dayton fell behind early after Marcus Thurman intercepted Flyers quarterback Alex Jeske on the third play from scrimmage to set up an 80-yard touchdown run by Owls running back Chaston Bennett, and Darnell Holland followed with a 2-yard touchdown run the next KSU drive.
Bennett finished with 155 yards on eight carries, and White added 133 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries to go along with 46 yards passing to lead the Owls.
Once Dayton finally got a stop on defense, the Flyers were able to begin climbing back. Jeske connected with Cory Stuart on a 20-yard touchdown pass to get on the board with 5:09 left in the first quarter, and Kacsor got going in the second period to score his first two touchdowns.
Kacsor had been limited to 28 yards on five carries the first quarter but ran eight times for 58 yards on his first scoring drive.
“We just didn’t make some plays,” KSU coach Brian Bohannon said. “There were some penalties that showed up and some turnovers at different times, and we had opportunities to make plays and we didn’t make them. We have a young football team, and sometimes our worst enemy is ourselves with a penalty or getting off schedule, missing an assignment, and we couldn’t get in the end zone. To their credit, they do a nice job running the football, which we knew going in, and when they get going, they are tough to stop.”
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