Flyers battled to a nil-nill draw against an unbeaten FGCU side. The game was moved to the CJ football stadium and played on turf due to all the rain.
As Dayton did against Butler, but not against Akron, the Flyers went back to bunker mode with 5 players in the back. with just a single striker chasing up top. The intent being to stay in the game and hope for a counter. The strategy worked almost to perfection.
The first half was pretty even. However, the story of this match was the second half. First, the referee decided he wanted to be the man of the match. Second, Coach Golz got a yellow card for dissent. That has to be a head scratcher as Golz is about as level headed as just about anyone. The referee had to have elephant ears to hear anything Golz said.
Third, within a span of about 4 minutes, Collie got two yellow cards which is an automatic red card. Neither yellow was particularly egregious and in most cases would be just called a simple foul. This put the Flyers a man down from the 54th minute until the end of the match.
For the rest of the match it was sit back, defend, and counter once in a while. Being short a man meant everybody had to chase even more. Also, being the game was played on turf, the ball rolled farther and faster than grass - necessitating even more chasing. To the Flyers credit they met the challenge and gave an outstanding effort for the rest of the match.
Late in the second half Pestell was able to put two great crosses from the left side right into the box. Unfortunately, no Flyer could get on the other end of either cross.
FGCU had a couple of solid chances. A free kick that Johns tipped off the cross bar and a couple of headers that went just wide. A couple of FGCU players did go down in the box, but the referee - having injected himself so forcefully into the match earlier - decided to let the teams play on.
While there are no moral victories, this is about as close as one gets. An outstanding effort by everyone. Having to chase on turf and a man down against a solid side is very tiring. The ladies bent but did not break.
Kudos for an outstanding effort. Take the result and get ready for
_avier on Thursday.