Men’s soccer tops St. Francis 3-0

By: Steve Boltri

The 0-2 Dayton Flyers Men’s soccer team played host to the 1-1 St. Francis University Red Flash Friday evening at Baujan Field, and came away with a convincing 3-0 victory.

The Flyers started the game strongly and dominated the majority of the first half but were unable to break the stalemate and went into the halftime break with the score 0-0.

“You felt like the first half we had some good chances to get the ball in the back of the net.  But I thought the guys fought really hard,” said Head Coach Dennis Currier after the game. “The second half we found the goals and that kind of opened things up but all around I thought it was a really good team effort.”

As Coach Currier’s comments alluded to, the second half was a different story.

SFU began the second half on the front foot, controlling most of the possession and testing Flyer goalkeeper Justin Saliba on a couple different occasions.  The Red Flash were unable to make a breakthrough and the game was quickly turned on its head when UD exploded for three goals in the final 30 minutes of the match.

Dayton’s flurry of goals was started by freshman Rok Taneski, who with the help of a lucky bounce, finished off a beautiful cross from David Lianes.

The spree was continued by junior Nick Hagenkord who added the final two goals of the match, first latching onto the end of a Tommy Harr free kick, and later finishing off a blistering counter attack by slotting a Taneski cross into the bottom of the net.  

When asked how it felt to lead the team’s attack and score two goals, Hagenkord said, “It feels amazing.  It feels good to be a part of this game.  We’ve got a great group of guys and I’m excited about the upcoming games.”

Coach Currier also expressed his excitement about the season moving forward and commented on how this new group of guys is coming together and learning how to win games.  After getting their first win of the season, it will be interesting to see if the Flyers can keep up their momentum and carry it with them for the rest of the season.

Up next for the Flyers is a home game against Belmont University Sunday, September 4, at 4:00PM at Baujan Field.

Photo by Christian Cubacub/Staff Photographer