Dayton High football faces league’s top team in Fernley

Dayton High ends the 2017 season with a match-up against league-leading Fernley.

Kickoff is Thursday at 7 p.m.

Dayton is coming off a lopsided loss, a game that was played with a running clock the entire second half.

“It was ugly (last week),” Dayton coach Patrick Squires said. “They blocked two punts in the first quarter, and that gave them (Wooster) short fields to work with. We hadn’t had a punt blocked all year. We made some adjustments, and it didn’t happen again. Obviously they saw something on film that we weren’t doing.

“This is a work in process, and the guys know that. Nobody has quit, and everybody has a good attitude.”

Dayton enters the game short-handed. The Dust Devils, according to Squires may suit up only 19 or 20 players. Marcus Barron and Nathan Collins are definitely out, and Justin Schmidt’s status is up in the air.

“We lost three or four guys last week,” Squires said. “Grades have also been an issue for us.”

Austin Lunz has 617 rushing yards with three scores. He’s the only Dayton player with more than one touchdown. Quarterback Trenton Thompson is 32 for 78 passing for 229 yards. Carson Keith, who started the season at quarterback, has 219 yards rushing.

The Vaqueros average nearly 400 yards a game in total offense. They have plenty of weapons.

“They are at the top of the league, and coach Ward has done a great job bringing their program back well. They are a well balanced football team.”

Quarterback Zach Burns has thrown for 1,163 yards and 16 scores. His favorite target is Aaron Proctor, who has 25 catches for 420 yards and three scores. Willy Pritchard leads the ground game with 682 yards and eight touchdowns.