DES MOINES, IOWA -- Flyer's quarterback Kevin Hoyng threw three touchdown passes as top-ranked Dayton clinched the Pioneer Football League title, while spoiling Drake's season finale with a 34-27 victory Satuday.

Fullback Willie Cashmore (Kansas City, Mo.), who was one of 19 seniors playing in his final football game for Drake, closed out his career with touchdown runs of one and seven yards.

Dayton, winning its sixth straight game, improved to 10-1 overall including a 6-1 league mark to share the league title with San Diego, which earlier claimed a 27-14 victory at co-leader Morehead State Saturday

However, Dayton won the tiebreaker against San Diego with an 35-16 victory against the Toreros Oct 26, enabling the Flyers to host the Gridiron Classic next Saturday, facing Albany which won the Northeast Conference title.

"Dayton is now a 10-1 team and they're going to represent our conference in the bowl game and I think we gave them everything we got," said Drake head football coach Steve Loney, whose team closed out the season with a 6-5 record, including a 3-4 league mark.

"You're going to win some and lose some, but you can always hold your head high and from where I'm standing I think that was a game our kids battled to the end. It was one that I told them we really didn't lose the game, we ran out of time."

Drake's offense came alive after a sluggish effort at Morehead State the previous week, by accounting for 387 yards total offense against Dayton which was ranked third nationally in total defense holding opponents to just 261.2 yards per game.

The 27 points scored by Drake were the most an opponent had scored against Dayton in the last four games. The Flyers were ranked No. 6 in the nation in scoring defense, surrendering only 13.9 points per game.

Senior Scott Phaydavong (Des Moines, Iowa/East) led Drake with 64 yards rushing in 22 carries to close out his brilliant career as the school's career rushing leader with 5,830 yards in 925 carries for a whopping 6.3 yard average. He also caught four passes in the game for 31 yards.

Senior strong safety Jacob Craig (Mount Vernon, Iowa) led Drake's defense with 12 tackles, including eight solo hits. Freshman redshirt linebacker Ben Morrison (Long Grove, Ill.) and senior free safety Andy Green (Atlantic, Iowa) added 11 tackles apiece.

Morrison recovered a Dayton fumble, while senior cornerback Poul Collins (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington) had a 14-yard interception return.  Collins' interception came on Dayton's opening possession of the game.

Drake threatened to grab the first lead of the game with its second drive starting on the 31 yardline following the turnover by the Flyers.

The Bulldogs marched down to the Dayton three yardline before quarterback Derek Retherford (Johnston, Iowa) had a pass intercepted in the endzone by cornerback Joe Castaneda who returned to the Drake 30 yardline.

Hoyng then threw touchdown passes of 23 and 22 yards to Ben Shappie and Mark Fuerst, respectively, to stake Dayton to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

Junior quarterback Cole Ingle (Runnells, Iowa) pulled the Bulldogs to within 14-7 in the second quarter after engineering an 11-play, 51-yard drive climaxed by a nine-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Daniel Marx (Maple Grove, Minn.) with 9:47 left.  Marx finished with five receptions for 100 yards.

After an 11-yard touchdown run by Shappie gave Dayton a 21-7 led with 1:48 left in the second quarter, Drake answered with an eight-play, 48 yard scoring drive.

Cashmore's one-yard touchdown run capped off the drive with just 36 seconds left before halftime. He had a big 25-yard run on third-down to keep the drive alive.

Retherford found Marx open for a four-yard touchdown pass with 8:36 left in the third quarter that pulled Drake within 24-21.

Cashmore's seven-yard touchdown run came with 2:49 left in the game pulling Drake within 34-27, but Dayton was able to run out the clock to end the game.