In a game of big plays amid stifling defense, the Dayton Dust Devils came up with the final big play, scoring the winning touchdown with one second remaining to beat the Spring Creek Spartans 17-10 at Dust Devil Field. The win was the first for Dayton over Northern 3A rival Spring Creek and improved the Dust Devils record to 5-0, 1-0 in league play.
The Dust Devils winning drive started on their own 34 with just under three minutes remaining.
Moving downfield, senior quarterback Travis Wood was able to put together a string of completions, finding Tommy O'Brien twice on third down to keep the drive moving. The big one was to Brandon Aguilera for 19 yards, moving down to the Spring Creek 22. After a holding call, Wood hit Byron Trigueros for eight yards and O'Brien for nine to give Dayton a first down at the 11 yard line with 17.9 seconds left. Woods threw an incomplete pass and Dayton coach Rick Walker decided to try to run the ball one more time but Aguilera was dropped for a loss. The Dust Devils lined up for what would have been a 32 yard field goal attempt with 7.9 ticks left, but were called for a false start, which moved the ball back five yards. At that point, Walker decided to try to make a play.
"We were going to the edge of our (field goal) range," Walker related. "So I thought, 'Do we try the field goal? Try a fake?' I decided to run a play. (James) Yeater made a catch, and the rest is history."
Wood found senior wide-out Yeater open over the middle at the goal line for the game winner.
"The safety slid over to help on Erik," Woods said, "and left Yeater alone in the middle."
Defenses for both teams played a hard-hitting, stingy brand of ball with the only significant offensive movement coming on a handful of big plays.
The Dayton 'D' came up with some big third down stops throughout the game to halt the Spartans progress.
Walker was very pleased with his black shirts.
"That's the bend but don't break scenario," he said. "Our defense is really playing well right now. I think we've only given up 40 points in five games. That's some pretty good 'D'. They've really stepped it up this year."
The Dust Devils held the Spartans to 142 yards of offense in the first half and 137 in the second, while gaining just 253 yards in the contest. Erik Hopper rushed 11 times for six yards. Wood was 12-20 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, but 197 of those yards came on just four plays.
Dayton opened big with Wood hitting Yeater for a 64 yard strike on the third play of the game, setting up a 22-yard Aguilera field goal.
Spring Creek took the lead on its first possession, with Michael Royer finding Michael Kruger behind the defense for a 24-yard TD with 5:12 left in the first quarter.
Wood and Hopper connected on an 84 yard touchdown halfway through the second quarter, giving Dayton a 10-7 halftime lead.
The third quarter was back and fourth with both teams trading punts until Spring Creek put together a drive keyed by a 47 yard pass form Royer to Caleb Wing. Wood came up with a big interception on a third and 10 play from the Dayton 15, giving the Dust Devils the ball at their own six.
Spring Creek finally tied the game with a field goal at 8:36 in the fourth quarter.
"This is big," said Wood, who was big on both sides of the ball. "The first four games don't matter, but this is league. Even though I play quarterback, I like to play defense. Defense wins championships."