It wasn’t a work of beauty, but it didn’t have to be, as the Dayton Flyers chalked up their first victory of the young season, defeating Tiffin University 35-12 in a rare Thursday night game under the lights of Welcome Stadium. The Flyers improve to 1-0 on the season while Tiffin drops to 0-1.

At kickoff, conditions were unseasonably brutal as late summer heat and humidity cooked up temperatures exceeding 100 degrees on the Welcome Stadium astroturf. Once the game got underway, it looked as if Tiffin was ready to do some cooking as well. The visitors moved the football very well on their first two drives, using a rushing game between the tackles and timely short-yardage passing to move the chains into Flyer territory. Dayton, with their ears pinned back a bit, toughened up once Tiffin crossed midfield however, forcing two Tiffin field goal attempts beyond 45 yards that somehow crawled over the crossbar for 6-0 Tiffin lead.

While both teams weren’t sharp, Dayton looked a step slow in the first 10 minutes as redshirt freshman Kelly Spiker made his first career start in what was also his first college game. The Tiffin defensive line created several problems for the Flyers, stuffing most Flyer rushes for little or no gain when Mike Kelly opted to run the football up the middle. Dayton went three downs and out on their first two possessions — an uncommon occurrence for the program built on Kelly’s ‘ground chuck’ offensive scheme that emphasizes the option attack.

While the Flyer offense had yet to kick in, the defense came up big soon thereafter as they forced aquarterback fumble in the Tiffin end zone and fell on the football to tie the game a six apiece. The extra point made it 7-6 and Dayton never looked back.

Quarterback Kelly Spiker settled in as the second quarter wore on, eventually hitting wide receiver Randy Hemmelgarn for a long bomb that went for a touchdown and broke the game open. Dayton returned to the ground game as fullback David George began finding small but annoying holes in the Tiffin front line, forcing the linebackers into run coverage that opened up dead spots in the secondary for the Dayton wideouts. The Flyers wrapped up the first half with a 21-6 advantage.

The second half was methodical as Dayton continued to rush the football while Tiffin tried to mix up the run and pass to get back into the football game. It didn’t happen. As the fourth quarter started, the Flyers had added another touchdown, increasing the lead to 28-6 and leaving the remaining elements of the game as a chance for the coaching staff to work in other players and new formations.

Tiffin managed to pound the football into Flyer territory midway through the fourth quarter and connected on a 20+ yard rope to a wide receiver cutting across the goal line for their final score. The extra point attempt had a mishandle and the score remained 28-12.

Dayton picked off a final Tiffin pass with under three minutes remaining, scampering 50+ yards into the end zone to cap off the scoring and the 35-12 victory.

The Flyers regrouped after a slow start and got the job done, but were it not for two defensive touchdowns, the contest might have gotten a bit hairy. Dayton had trouble running the football, primarily because few holes opened up between the tackles for the fullbacks and tailbacks to poke through. Dayton had better success running to the outside as Spiker ran the option nicely on several plays — though he usually kept the football rather than pitched it. Defensively, Dayton looked fairly sharp and the cornerbacks deserve special mention for choking the Tiffin wideouts with strong man-to-man coverage and nickel formations when it was called for. Tiffin lacked the big plays all night and had to pick up yardage underneath the coverage to move the chains. While Tiffin had some success rushing the football, both teams had trouble holding onto the pigskin as opening-game fumbles halted drives on both sides of the football.

Dayton hosts Ohio Northern University two Saturdays from now, and lurking just beyond the horizon is the matchup with the Yale Bulldogs (Elis). The Flyer coaching staff should be pleased with the defensive performance and pleased that the first game is behind them, but there’s still plenty to iron out and shore up in practice as the season progresses. Dayton doesn’t appear to have a game-breaking player, and a redshirt freshman is taking the snaps at quarterback, so it could turn out to be another typical Mike Kelly team of depth, precision, and old-fashioned guts that have been Flyer football hallmarks for 20 years. The team has a chance to be very good, and most football critics believe the real metal of a team is found in the progress between the first and second game of the season. We’ll have more answers in two Saturdays.