DAYTON - It's a funny feeling to keep looking up at a lopsided outcome on the scoreboard and think that you really had a chance to win the football game.
But that's what faced the Dayton football team after it lost its third straight Northern Nevada 3-A conference game, this time to Tahoe-Truckee, 38-6, Friday night at home.
The score of the game was not reflected in Dayton's physical play. The first quarter was not representative of the outcome, either. Dayton dominated the first quarter, but came away with no points.
What was reflective of the score was Dayton's mistakes, as five Dust Devil turnovers helped lead to the outcome.
"Too many mistakes," said Dayton Coach Butch Cattanach. "The score looks very familiar.
"We couldn't get the ball in the end zone. We turned the ball over. You feel like you're in the game. They're not physical beatings."
Truckee opened the game by touching the ball too soon on an onside kick attempt, giving Dayton the ball at the Wolverine 49-yard line. Dayton moved inside the 10 on the strength of a 16-yard pass from Jim Kepler to Mark Nelson, a 13-yard pass from Kepler to Shane VanZant and a 19-yard run on an end-around by Jeff Miller. But the drive stalled and a bad snap on a 25-yard field goal attempt prevented Dayton from scoring.
On its next drive, Dayton drove deep into the Truckee territory again on the strength of a 13-yard pass from Kepler to Matt Council and VanZant's 18-yard option run. But again, Dayton was denied when it missed a 38-yard field goal.
A fumbled punt at the Dayton 20 set up Truckee's first touchdown, a 20-yard scoring run by David Larson. Mike Sampang, who seemed to be on virtually every defensive play, blocked the extra point to keep the score at 6-0.
"All over the field," Cattanach said about Sampang. "He is a warrior. I thought we had some big hits on people. I thought we were physical on defense."
Truckee scored on its next drive on a 4-yard TD pass from Dan Tholen to Larson. Jory Eley kept the score at 12-0 when he he intercepted a pass in the end zone late in the first half.
But Evan Birchard returned the second half's opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. Dayton then fumbled the ball away at its own 20, setting up Dane Molina's 3-yard TD run to give Truckee a 25-0 lead.
Dayton fought back on its next possession when VanZant rumbled 66 yards on a screen pass from Kepler. On fourth-and-goal, Kepler completed a 12-yard scoring pass to Miller.
Truckee, though, struck quickly when it got the ball back, with Tholen scoring on a 55-yard option run.
An interception gave Truckee the ball deep in Dayton territory, but Daniel Lopez tackled Tholen for a 7-yard loss to help stop the threat.
But Truckee was in business again when Kellen Babb intercepted a pass on a fake punt attempt for Dayton and returned it deep into Dust Devil territory. That set up Birchard's 18-yard run to finish the scoring.
Kepler was 10-of-19 for 140 yards and VanZant gained a hard-earned 69 yards on the ground.
"I thought we moved the ball pretty well," Cattanach said. "Kepler played a great game. I thought VanZant stepped up and ran hard."
