By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.– The Dayton defense did Dayton defense things.
During the first half of Friday’s game against Santiam Christian, they were pinned with their end-zone on their heels during their first roughly five possessions. It was a pressure cooker of a jam, but the Pirates rose to the occasion, allowing just one first half score to the Eagles as they trailed 7-0 going into the halftime break.
“Our guys have been doing awesome on defense. They play fast, they fly around. We bend a little but, we really tighten it down when they’re in our territory in the red zone. We got a lot of key fourth-down stops and turnovers on downs. I’m really proud of them,” said Dayton Head Coach Kiegen Schaan.
“They just kept grinding, kept plugging away at it. I’m so proud of them. I just love our abilities to not to be discouraged and line up and get to the next play, even when stuff isn’t going our way.”
Jordan Herb had the lone score in the opening half of the game, a three-yard strike by the Eagles back. Both team’s offense had a little more success in the second half however.
Dayton’s offense, which struggled to get out of their own side of the field in the first half, started to piece together drives. They tied the game up at seven off a Jaxon Allen to Makoy Fleeman passing connection midway through the third quarter.
The score remained at seven going into the fourth quarter. That’s when the offense really took off between the two teams.
Santiam Christian broke the tie thanks to a Levi Thorson to Harrison Hedlund 12-yard connection with 7:41. Dayton blocked the PAT, making the game 13-7 at this point. The Pirates drove down and pulled ahead. John Corona punched in a score from a yard out with 3:48 left in the game.
“Just 1-0, trying to win our next set. Win our set each time. We just got to keep battling, but it was a fun game, just a rough outcome,” Corona said.
Then it was the Eagles turn to try to work some late game magic. Santiam Christian trailed 14-13 at this point. And they went to work.
“We didn’t have a doubt in our minds that we were going to win the game. It’s personal with Dayton always, so we weren’t going to go lose another game and we were going to go out and win as a team. Everyone did a great job, line did a great job, running back did a great job picking up the blitzes and luckily the receiver came down with the touchdown, so it was great.” said Eagles QB Levi Thorson. “It was a physical game all around.”
They begin to march down the field. At about midfield, they picked up a defenseless receiver penalty that led into a Thorson passing score the next play to put them back ahead.
The PAT was good with five seconds remaining in the game. The Eagles led 20-14 at this point.
Dayton got a fair catch on the ensuing kickoff, but couldn’t pull back ahead as Santiam Christian snapped their three-game losing streak with the win.
“We worked so hard in practice and we had to let the coaches know that we got them and they got us, it was a great win as a team,” Thorson said.
