Men’s Soccer: Flyers Pours Offense On Mason, Secures Fourth Seed

By: Michael Crouchley – Staff Writer

The Dayton Flyers (6-2) men’s soccer team took the field against the George Mason Patriots (0-7-1) on Wednesday night for the final game of the regular season. The stakes were high as the Flyers needed to come away with a win or draw to secure home field advantage in their Atlantic-10 quarterfinal match.

Through a steady downpour of chilly rain and Flyer goals, UD finished off a 5-2 victory, securing the A-10’s fourth seed in the tournament.

The Patriots entered this game winless in A-10 play, but the Flyers got off to a slow start nonetheless. A counter attack in the 9th minute saw George Mason’s Dirks Henning put the Patriots up 1-0.

“We started quite bad,” said sophomore Flyer forward Rok Taneski “We didn’t expect to go down so early.”

Dayton woke up and responded immediately with two goals of their own in the next five minutes of game time. In the 15th, senior midfielder Alvaro Navarro found Taneski with a long ball. Taneski cut back and put the ball in the bottom corner. Only a minute later, Taneski assisted freshman forward Wariebi Jituboh for his first goal of the season.

“I thought our reaction to their goal was very good,” said Head Coach Dennis Currier. “We got the two quick goals and from there the game opened up a bit more.”

He was not lying about the game opening up as the Flyers continued to create chance after chance in the following minutes. The George Mason defense could only handle the onslaught for about four minutes as they ended up committing a penalty in the 20th. Taneski stepped up and drilled the penalty kick, putting the Flyers up 3-1.
&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>

&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>&’ async type=’text/javascript’>

As the second half got underway, Taneski started right back up where he left off when Navarro found him with a cross and he dribbled around the keeper to score his third goal of the game for the hat trick.

“We pushed even more after the first goal,” Taneski said about his hat trick. “The third goal was nicely set up by Alvaro so all credit to my teammates.”

In the 55th minute, Navarro added to his two assists with a goal of his own when the George Mason keeper gave away the ball in the box and Navarro chipped it over his head.

GMU netted a consolation goal in the 62nd minute by Ryan Mingachos, but the game was all but finished at that point. You could see the frustration building for George Mason as Jackson Miles was sent off in the 77th minute after getting into a heated argument with the official when he thought he was fouled.

Perhaps the biggest factor in this game was the rain, which pooled on the field to make every play a sloppy mess.

“I personally love playing in the rain,” Taneski said. “But today was a little too much with all the puddles. I’m happy we got through the game with a win”.

The regular season is officially over and Coach Currier is optimistic about the Flyers postseason chances, “We’re entering the postseason playing our best and that’s what you want to do.”

The Flyers start their postseason journey at Baujan Field on Saturday, Nov. 4 with a quarterfinal matchup against Fordham, whom the Flyers have not yet played this year.

Regardless of the result, Baujan Field will play host to the conference semifinals and final on Nov. 10 and 12.

Photos Courtesy of Steve Miller