Nov. 12, 2006

Final Stats

The University of Dayton football team found itself on the receiving end of a brilliant performance by San Diego quarterback Josh Johnson Saturday night, losing the final game of the 2006 season 56-14 at Torero Stadium on the campus of USD. Johnson was statistically involved in San Diego's first seven TD's (four passing, two rushing and one receiving) and completed 26 of 31 passes (completing 20 of his first 21) for 316 yards.

The Toreros took a 14-0 first-quarter lead after drives of 66 and 68 yards. The Dayton offense got untracked with a 71-yard march of its own, but a high snap on a 26-yard field goal attempt ruined the timing of the play and it was blocked. USD scored three more times of drives of 92, 57 and 28 yards to lead 34-0 at halftime.

San Diego took the second half kickoff went 60 yards for another TD, and after a Dayton punt to the USD 15, Flyer defensive tackle Ryan Heideloff read an attempted screen pass and intercepted it, giving UD the ball on the nine. Dayton got on the board with a fourth-and-goal two-yard pass from quarterback Kevin Hoyng to tight end Matt Champa. Matt Swartz's PAT made the score 41-7.

The Toreros responded with a two-play, 55-yard drive, going up top for a 46-yard bomb and a two-point conversion that made the score 49-7. A six-play, 45-yard drive ended the scoring for San Diego. UD's Nick Ruhe took the kickoff that followed 36 yards for the Flyers' best special teams placement of the game, and the Dayton offense took it the next 62 yards in eight plays, with Ben Shappie taking it over from the one to finish the scoring for the evening.

Ruhe was the Red & Blue's top offensive performer. His four catches for 66 yards gave him a school-record 977 yards on the year, breaking the 919 yards set by Ryan Wrobleski last season. Champa added two catches for 33 yards and the TD. After completing just one of his first five passes, quarterback Kevin Hoyng was eight for 18 through the air for 122 yards. That gave the Flyers 2,472 passing yards as a team (2,052 by Hoyng, and 420 by Rob Florian), setting another Dayton record. The old mark was last season's 2,113.

Sophomore safety Corey Vossler led the Flyers with 15 tackles. The Pioneer Football League's top hitter, Brian Kelly, added 12. Chance Walton had 11, while both John Hoppe and Brandon Cramer each had 10.

The loss gave UD a 4-6 overall record (1-6 PFL) for 2006, the Flyers' first losing season in thirty years. Four of the losses were by seven points or less. In fact, the other five Flyer losses this season were by 30 points, or 12 less than the margin in the San Diego game. The Toreros' 56 points were the most scored against Dayton since Indiana State beat UD by the identical 56-14 score on October 18, 1975. San Diego improves to 10-0 (7-0 PFL), and has now won 18 straight games, the longest winning streak in Division I-AA.

The Flyers had a string of 29 consecutive winning seasons snapped in 2006, but through the season extended its string of games without being shut out to 340. That's the longest such string in college football.