Bryce Schondelmyer throws one of his 23 completions. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
After throwing three interceptions in the first three quarters and falling behind, 20-17, Bryce Schondelmyer, the former Arcanum star quarterback, threw touchdown passes on his last two throws to lift the University of Dayton to a big Pioneer Football League victory, lifting the Flyers to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the PFL.
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Dayton, OH. — If you were wearing the red uniform jerseys of the University of Dayton football team, the numbers on the big scoreboard on the south end of Welcome Stadium were ugly.
Valpairiso University scored a touchdown with 2:42 left in the third quarter to capture a 20-17 lead on a brisk, windy Saturday afternoon..
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Valpairiso 20, Dayton 17. Ugly.
Could the Flyers come back? Their star quarterback, Bryce Schondelmyer, was not having his normal outstanding game.
Three interceptions will do that to a quarterback. And one was returned 68 yards for a touchdown by Valpo defensive back Nick Lendino.
Lendlino had Schondelmyer’s number and it wasn’t the ‘7’ Schondelmyer wore. It was ‘2,’ as in two interceptions.
What was Schondelmyer thinking? Was it, “Oh, no, there goes our 7-1 record and our 4-1 Pioneer Football League record and our chances to win the league championship?”
Of course not. That’s not the way the 6-2, 195-pound senior has ever thought — not since his three years at Arcanum High School and one year at Springfield High School.
Drew Flaherty gives QB Bryce Schondelmyer protection.
Or, for that matter, his entire two-year career calling signals for the Football Flyers.
So what did he do about it? His last two passes went for toucdowns as he lifted the Flyers to a 31-20 win that was staggeringly closer than the score.
Those last two passes that went for touchdowns gave him four touchdown tosses during his 23 for 33 day for 291 yards.
The next-to-last one came with 3:18 left in the game — third-and-goal at the six. Schondelmyer rolled to his left and lobbed it in the left corner of the end zone to Michael Mussari.
That pushed the Flyers in front, 24-20.
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“Mussari was actually the third read,” he said. “They gave us a different look for what we wanted on that play. I got moved to my left a little bit and found (Mussari) in the back of the end zone and he made a great catch and got his foot down. I was a little worried he might have been out of bounds.”
Ethan Thulin snags one of Bryce Schondelmyer’s passes.
After a Valpo three-and-out, Schondelmyer did it one more time — a 34-yard TD strike to Gavin Lachow to end all doubt.
“I was really proud of myself to come through at the end with the touchdown to put us up,” he said. “Then the defense did what they do and got another stop and we won the game.
“Not happy with it, but the most important stat is that we won the game.”
As he usually does, Schondelmyer spread the good stuff around. The four touchdown passes went to four different receivers (Donovan Weatherly, LeRoy Lewis, Michael Mussari, Gavin Luchow).
Lochow (58) and Massari (48) are the top receivers, but Schondelmyer has no specific go-to guy.
“No favorites, I love all the guys,” he said. “There’s never gonna be a certain guy that’s getting the ball. I go through the reads and whatever the defense is giving us, it doesn’t matter. We have so many great weapons.
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“They can all do great things and I love spreading the ball around to all of them,” he added.
Valpo came to Dayton with the most sacks in the Pioneer League and took aim at Schondelmyer. They didn’t put him in a single sack and he put together some escape acts.”
Bryce Schondelmyer watches his defense get the ball back.
Known more as a statue quarterback — run only at risk of death — Schondelmyer scrambled three times for 22 yards, twice for third down runs for first downs.
“The pass protection was great,” he said. “I was hardly touched, didn’t get sacked all day. Kind of rare thing for me to run but it kinda worked out for us today.”
After stuttering and stammering football-wise for three quarters, what Schondelmyer did in the fourth quarter was not something shocking to former Dayton coach and legend Mike Kelly, who now works behind a microphone with Larry Hansgen on the radio broadcasts.
Kelly has seen Schondelmyer’s fourth-quarter magistry for four straight weeks.
“He is the sharpest, brightest quarterback we’ve had in a long time,” he said. “He is not necessarily the most athletic quarterback, but when it comes to Xs and Os he understands. He is definitely a coach on the field. The coaches ask him many times, “What d’ya think?”
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And his answer most like is, “Let’s pass.”
Schondelmyer can’t remember his first forward pass but knows he was playing football in the first grade at Arcanum. But not as a quarterback.
UD Coach Trevor Andrews watches his team’s comeback.
“I didn’t play quarterback until I was in the eighth grade,” he said. “It was in middle school. I always went to summer camps and I was always quarterback at the camps.
“But when the seasons came around I never played quarterback, but I got the opportunity my eighth grade year and never looked back,” he said.
After three standout years at Arcanum, he transferred to Springfield, which had open enrollment, and led the Wildcats to the Division I state championship game.
“It was a tough decision because I grew up in Arcanum,” he said, “But I felt Springfield would give me an opportunity to play at a higher level because I knew I wanted to play college football.”
His high school numbers were ungodly, unworldly and the list of records he set were longer than his last name.
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That year in Springfield he passed 4,630 yards and 48 touchdowns, fourth in the nation. Mix in his three years at Arcanum and his prep career added up to 11,521 yards passing and 136 touchdowns.
Then off he went to Youngstown State. He might have been better off signing on as a guy who started cars for Mafia guys in case the cars blew up. He didn’t play for two years.
Gavin Lochow grabs a game-ending touchdown pass.
“I was at Youngstown State for two years and really like it there,” he said. “I learned a lot, so much that I found out that while I was in high school I didn’t know anything about football.”
So he brought all that knowledge absorbed on the sidelines to Dayton and has applied them the past two years as a Flyer.
While UD coach Trevor Andrews was not a big fan of the three intercpetions, particularly a long heave just before the half that was intercepted, he knows his quarterback is a proficient producer.
“Schondy forced one in there,” he said of the long-range interception. “He did it last week (A 44-34 win at Stetson). Same thing. We have to get out of that habit.”
About Mussari being the third option on the go-ahead TD toss, Andrews said, “Yes, we had a lot of those today. They (Valparaiso) lead the conference in third down defense, but Schondy bought time and showed a lot of poise today,
“He had to move around in the pocket today to find some things and he averaged seven yards a rush on those scrambles. He’s never done that before. But he’s tough and he’s smart.”
And if he leads the Flyers to wins in their last two games against Davidson and Presbyterian, he will have passed the Flyers to the PFL championship.
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