The Finale: Dayton

[VULB#62]

Great lead-in article to The Finale by Jim Peters.

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/columnists/jim-peters/jim-peters-vu-football-eyes-one-more-milestone-in-a/article_2d31757e-9841-5bd3-a020-d12e3b5b29bc.html

From that article: The Flyers stand in the way of a Valpo's season exclamation point. A deceptive 5-5, they lost three games minus quarterback Alex Jeske and are 4-1 since his return. 

That lone loss w/Jeske was to Campbell at home. Here are the Flyer scores:

@ Robert Morris (NEC) LOSS - 10-13
SE Missouri (OVC) WIN 25-23
Duquesne (NEC) LOSS 23-28
@ Morehead State LOSS 28-34
USD LOSS 7-23
@ Drake WIN 20-10
Campbell LOSS 7-17
@ Davidson WIN 48-22
Butler WIN 27-22
Marist WIN 36-17
Novemebr 11 BYE
@ Valpo ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Gonna be a close one -- the team that makes the fewest mistakes and wants it more will squeak by.  Can't help but believe that our kids will play as if possessed.  They will leave nothing on the field by the end of this game -- there is no next one. GO VALPO!

[VULB#62]

Game Day!  Wear your rain gear. It's  gonna be a wet one all game.  GO VALPO!

[vu72]

Game Day!  Wear your rain gear. It's  gonna be a wet one all game.  GO VALPO!

Looks like some snow too!!  Stay warm and dry!

[govalpogo]

Nifty 2pt conversion for the win.  Congrats to Coach C and the seniors for achieving the first winning season in quite some time!  This team was 2 TD's away from 8-3 this year (Next year goals )! 

[vu72]

VALPO WINS!!  vALPO WINS!!  8-7!!!  FIRST WINNING SEASON SINCE 2003!!!  HOPEFULLY 62 STAYED WARM AND DRY!!! 

wHAT A DAY AND WHAT A WIN!!   

[VU75]

Ryan Clark just became legendary.

[Dave_2010]

Give that man a contract extension!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[VU2014]

A great win!

https://twitter.com/ValpoAD/status/932013208042434560
https://twitter.com/DaytonFootball/status/932012226466209792

[JD24]

Ryan Clark just became legendary.

That he did. Hopefully Ryan Clarke's name will be spelled correctly when the legend is written. 

[JD24]

Fantastic win. Hopefully Dave is locked up either by current or extended contract. Lots of guys back, perhaps most importantly the QB is back. Should be a big year, perhaps bigger next season. The schedule should be interesting as to which team replaces Campbell on our schedule. San Diego or Davidson. Couldn't be more polar opposites in possibilities and it could be potentially the difference between a league championship and 2nd place. That's not just a Valpo issue.

One complaint which has been mentioned by at least one other poster. Lose the Jet sweep near the goal line. Could have cost them today.

[VULB#62]

On my way home drenched.  hypothermic. ecstatic. I'll share more tomorrow when I defrost. But MLB told me Dave was already signed going forward. Words cannot describe how resilient our D was today. Time and again they had to shoulder the burden and they never gave in.

[bbtds]

I wonder when was the last time a head coach in Div. 1 put the game on the line with a 2 point conversion going for the win instead of going for the tie. I know the weather was terrible for kicking FGs and extra points but how could Cecchini be certain the two pointer would be successful. Dave sure had a lot of confidence in his offense.

[JD24]

I wonder when was the last time a head coach in Div. 1 put the game on the line with a 2 point conversion going for the win instead of going for the tie. I know the weather was terrible for kicking FGs and extra points but how could Cecchini be certain the two pointer would be successful. Dave sure had a lot of confidence in his offense.

I don't know the answer to the question about the "last time" but, if there was any lack of confidence in the kicking game....and the way things looked there should have been....then the logic of "I'd rather lose trying to win than trying to tie" makes a lot of sense.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/BrandonVickrey/status/932097411643793414

Late touchdown, two-point conversion give Valpo a win and a winning season
Jim Peters jim.peters@nwi.com
Nov 18, 2017

VALPARAISO — If it had been pitched as an ending to a movie, the script would have been panned as too cheesy.

Except that it really happened.

Playing in his final college game, Valparaiso senior Jarrett Morgan scored on a 1-yard run with 1:20 left, then flipped a jump pass to classmate Ryan Clarke for the two-point conversion that accounted for an improbable 8-7 Pioneer League victory over Dayton on a miserable afternoon of wind, rain and cold at Brown Field.

Oh, the win is the Crusaders' first over the Flyers since 2003, which is also the last time Valpo had a winning season.

.............. http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/football/college/late-touchdown-two-point-conversion-give-valpo-a-win-and/article_122fd540-d869-579b-a6e1-1f3d7cd2eb98.html

[valpotx]

These guys should be very proud to have restored the program to respectability.  The 2 PFL championships while I was in school were very fun to witness, but this year's team definitely proved that they should be thought of in a very similar way.  They proved again that you can win at Valpo, and we have the right staff in place to advance us next year!

[usc4valpo]

A great great win for the football team and a wonderful season that certainly exceeded expectations. Congrats to  the seniors for their grit and success. Think about what this football program has had to overcome and where they are in four years. Fantastic job guys.

[VULB#62]

Some additional random observations from Brown Field during and after the Dayton game:

The crowd was pegged at 1,238.  Not bad at all considering the terrible weather and the fact that students were gone.  The campus was dead.  I wanted to stop at the book store for a knit cap at 12:15 prior to the game -- closed!

Dayton fans travel well.  Quite a few Dayton followers on the visitors' side

No cheerleaders.  No pep band.  No blow-up arch (largely because of the wind I suspect).  The guy with the cannon set up in the garage door of the utility shed.

Loudspeaker played pump-up music on  defensive 3rd downs that stopped just befor the snap.  It added to the excitement.  In past seasons fans dreaded opponent 3rd downs (what are we gonna do to screw this up???).  Now there is an air on confidence on the field, on the sidelines and also in the stands as well.  PA announcer helps with his 3rd down call as well.

It was a rather ironic give-away promotion -- the first 1000 got a free SUN VISOR!

Despite the small crowd, I believe it was the most sustained (game long) amount of cheering by our fans that I have heard in any game I've attended. They were into it.

Said it earlier (and Dave said the same thing in his interviews)  the defense played a 60 minute game and took it to Dayton all afternoon.

Unlike other games we were not as consistent in moving the ball on long drives.  The wind had a lot to do with that.  Into the wind some of Jimmy's balls just hung up and fluttered; with the wind, balls sailed out of reach.  On Baily's punt muff you could see the ball move (almost like a knuckleball) just before he tried to catch it. On the one that he let hit and roll, the wind kept blowing the rolling ball until the Dayton player downed it inside the one.  We, BTW, did a great job of getting the ball out there on the ensuing 3 downs -- in the long ago and well as the not too distant past, we probably would have coughed it up and gave up a score.  Not this game. 

It seemed all of the 3rd quarter that when we were punting, their safety lined up on or inside the 50.  Talk about handing them field position.  But they only got one score! That occurred in the Q4! And punt coverage was great throughout -- he had to either fair catch it or let it hit.  Kudos to Alex Ng -- he drove his punts low and into the wind which enabled them to go the 30 or so yards needed.  When the Drake punter punted into the wind it hung up forever.  His average was higher than Alex's because he got that one roller for 68 yards and many of his punts were with the wind I believe.

I think most fans in the stands were surprised Dave went for 2.  I think most thought we'd go for an almost certain tie (although the wind was a factor) and try to win it in OT. Brilliant play call however.  Dayton bit 100% on it and Ryan was WIDE open.

A lot of smiling faces around the Victory Bell.  That's where I talked to MLB and Dave. Dave had this deer-in-the-headlights grin on his face the whole time - it never came off as long as I was there.  As mentioned earlier, MLB has already tied up Dave's new contract.  Of course, we'll never know the specifics, but as long as it's for 2 more years (Seewald's senior season) we'll be OK.

I don't know if this is accurate, but it felt like our kids were quicker than I've ever seen them before.  Maybe some of that was due to a lack of hesitancy.  Hesitancy is a product of insufficient confidence.  I guess we've moved past that finally.

One more thing about the gawd-awful wind.  The American flag was straight flat out all game and generally in a NW to SE or a W to E direction.  The smaller flags on the visitor side were also straight out but often blowing N to S.  It was crazy out there.

CONGRATULATIONS VALPO FOOTBALL 2017!!

[JD24]

On the wind....the Dayton side had tents set up in the flat area of the stands early in the game. They were gone in the 2nd half as the wind picked up.

[VULB#62]

I counted close to 20 broken umbrellas in trash cans on the Valpo side.     I had one with me but decided against even bringing it to the stadium.