Dayton squares off with South Tahoe tonight

Dayton High's football team hopes to get over the .500 mark for the season when it hosts South Tahoe tonight (7 p.m.) in a critical Northern 3A football battle.

The Dust Devils are 2-2 overall and 1-2 in league, while South Tahoe is 2-2 overall and 0-2 in league. The Dust Devils have been in a win-lose-win-lose mode through the first four games of the season.

Neither team can afford to lose its third so early in the season, especially with Lowry, Spring Creek and Truckee all unbeaten thus far and Elko with just one loss.

"There are no easy games in the 3A," Dayton coach Rob Turner said. "Last year we overlooked both South Tahoe and Wooster and both hung losses on us. We're trying to keep focused and play one game at a time."

Dayton is facing a South Tahoe team that pounded Wooster 41-21 behind the 441-yard running effort by Jacob Stowell. He had four touchdown runs of 70 yards or more.

"He's a big, tall kid," Dayton coach Rob Turner said. "He has pretty good feet and runs pretty hard. He's not their only weapon, but he's a big one. Our kids noticed that he runs very high. We are a decent tackling team. We do take pride in it.

"We played them in camp and they threw a lot. They aren't throwing as much as I expected."

Turner's defense will be without safety Sam Hadley, who is out with an injury. His spot will be shared by Tyler Ortiz, Luke Spencer and Christian Davis.

"Spencer is our centerfielder in passing situations," Turner said. "The other two are better run stoppers."

Turner is hoping for a better effort offensively than what he saw last week against Lowry in a 47-24 loss.

"If we do what we want to do and run our stuff correctly, we can move the ball on anybody," Turner said. "We weren't getting our down blocks. There was some freelancing going on. It really disrupted our rhythm.

"We did things really well against Fallon. We can run the ball on anyone (if we block the right way)."

South Tahoe coach Kevin Hennessee said slowing down Dayton's run is critical for his team.

"We're going to have to play better than last week," Hennessee told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "It's going to be tough, Dayton is good. They get a huge push on the offensive line.

"They run an old-fashion double wing, foot to foot. We're going to have to slow down their run and not let them get big chunks. We actually played better defense, not great defense, but better defense. We're playing harder, that's a bigger thing."

Dayton will start Austin Fletcher at quarterback again. Fletcher was banged up briefly against Lowry and Jake Turner came on and played well in relief.