Dayton, Ohio – The Robert Morris University football team had its best offensive output in nearly five years but lost its season opener under first-year head coach Bernard Clark Jr., 49-28, at Dayton Saturday afternoon at Welcome Stadium.
 
The Colonials rolled up 416 yards with the ball, the most since posting 448 yards at VMI on Sept. 28, 2013. Senior quarterback Jimmy Walker went 16-of-32 for 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also rushed four times for 33 yards and a score. Tim Vecchio and Chase Bodeman each caught six passes and had a receiving score. Vecchio tallied 61 yards and Bodeman had 51. Matthew Gonzalez had 84 yards receiving on four catches.
 
Dayton finished with 465 yards of offense, 272 on the ground and 193 through the air. Tucker Yinger rushed 11 times for 139 yards while Jack Cook went 7-for-12 for 11 yards and two scores tossing the pigskin.
 
Trailing 7-0 on its first possession of the game, Robert Morris put together an impressive seven-play drive that featured a trio of pinpoint passes from Walker. The senior quarterback completed passes of 23 yards to DeLano Madison and 26 yards to Vecchio. Walker capped the 72-yard march with a 15-yard toss on a skinny post to Gonzalez, tying the game 7-7 with 9:34 left in the first quarter.
 
Dayton responded with 21 uninterrupted points. Alex Jeske hit Adam Trautman from 31 yards, Richie Warfield scampered five yards off right guard before Ryan Skibinski took a bubble screen 64 yards to stretch the margin to 28-7 midway through the second quarter. Nick Bisceglia looked like he had a 43-yard field goal that would have interrupted the Dayton scoring, but an illegal formation penalty wiped the points off the board and the ensuing attempt missed right.
 
The Colonials were able to grab a bit of the momentum before halftime as they ground out a 14-play, 81-yard drive. Walker hit Madison for 18 yards and Gonzalez for 28 yards to sustain the drive. On third down, the senior was able to hit Bodeman in the right corner of the end zone to make the score 28-14 heading into halftime.
 
After Dayton scored on its opening drive of the second half, Robert Morris rolled down the field after Stephens rolled 12 yards on the first play. Walker then connected with Gonzalez for 27 yards and Vecchio for eight. The senior play-caller capped the drive with a pair of runs, the final going for nine-yards as he rolled over a defender to cut the margin to 35-21 with 8:46 left in the third.
 
Warfield and Cook each ran for three-yard touchdowns to push the margin to 49-21. Redshirt-freshman George Martin engineered the final scoring drive of the game for RMU. He went 5-for-7 for 38 yards while Alijah Jackson toted the rock five times for 28 yards. The Colonials made the final score 49-28 when Martin found Vecchio from six yards away, the first career touchdown pitch for the Ringgold graduate.
 
Robert Morris lifts the lid on its home schedule next Saturday, Sept. 8, when it hosts Virginia State at Joe Walton Stadium for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff.