Flyer football plays home-opener family weekend
By: Dan Durkin – Staff Writer
The Dayton Flyers football team will play its second game of the season, and the first at home at Welcome Stadium, this Saturday against the Duquesne Dukes.
The Flyers come into this game with a 1-0 record, winning their season opener two weeks ago against Robert Morris 27-24, behind some solid play on all sides of the ball. The Flyers are coming into this game with an unknown. Who will be the starting quarterback?
Head coach Rick Chamberlin is deciding between redshirt first-year Alex Jeske and redshirt sophomore Blake Bir. Bir started the first game of the season, but Jeske also received a good amount of playing time in that game.
“We are still working it down, and we are seeing who can execute at practice,” Chamberlin said.
He said he feels good because he has two players who can take on the job.
One of the keys to the Flyers victory over Robert Morris two weeks ago was the defense, led by senior defensive captains Chris Beaschler, a linebacker who had a career-high 18 tackles, and Danny Leach, a free safety who had a 93-yard interception return for a touchdown. Leach’s play helped him earn the Pioneer Football League’s Defensive Player of the Week award.
Leach explained, however, that the expectations for success are two-sided: “The offense is going to expect the defense to go out and get a stop and get the offense the ball back, and we expect the offense to go out and take the ball down and score. We have full confidence in them as they do in us.”
The Flyers are coming off an early-season bye week, something that doesn’t happen often.
“All at once you could be rolling and then you could have a bye week, and now you have to try and get going again,” Chamberlin said. “Since it’s still at the start of the season, now you can get into a routine and rhythm. And, hopefully, it’ll carry us for the next 10 weeks.”
The Flyers are hoping to continue their success on family weekend, as they did last year on this weekend against Robert Morris.