The last time junior striker Chris Rolfe missed a match, the Dayton Flyers struggled offensively and fell for the only time all year to a very talented Virginia Tech squad. Rolfe re-aggravated a groin injury during pre-game warmups Sunday afternoon but this time it didn’t matter as UD had enough offense to beat #13 UMass 3-2 before 683 fans at Baujan Field. The #18 Flyers improve to 8-1-2 (3-0-1) on sophomore George Nanchoff’s game-winning free kick in the 64th minute that kissed the inside of the post.

Dayton, accustomed to taking the early lead and holding on at the end, had to come from behind on Sunday as UMass struck first with a goal from Oral Bullen in the 10th minute. Bullen ripped a shot at the Flyer goal that UD goalkeeper Matt Handy made a great diving save on, but Bullen followed his shot and poked it back in as Handy went to collect the small bobble, resulting in the first score of the match. Perhaps Bullen kicked the ball while Handy had a mitt on the ball and perhaps he didn’t but it was just a case of unfortunate circumstances than forced the Flyers to play down a goal early in the game.

UMass gave a good effort in the first 10-15 minutes of the match and Dayton took a while to settle in and find their groove. Until that time, the Minutemen created a handful of decent scoring chances on offense that the Flyers were able to withstand. Around the 15 minute mark however, UD regained control of things and began putting serious pressure on the UMass goal mouth. Several free kicks and restarts allowed Dayton to run downhill and all that hard work paid off in the 16th minute as freshman Antti Arst took a free kick from 20yds out that UMass GK Colin Burns was screened on as Arst placed it nicely inside the near post to tie the match a 1-1.

With the strong contingent of UMass fans now a bit quieter, UD kept the heat on and followed Arst’s goal up with more quality chances to take the lead. That’s exactly what happened in the 22nd minute sophomore Mpoki Tenende redirected a cross from just in front of the goal line that fooled Burns and put the Flyers on top 2-1.

From there on the half evened out a bit as UMass stepped up their play. The Minutemen had good speed all over the field and against Dayton — a team with plenty of speed to spare — that gave UMass a chance in this match. In fact, the Minutemen felt so confident about their speed that they played a lot of kick-and-run at times, and much of that strategy would come into play in the second half as well. Kick-and-run had nothing to do with UMass’ first half equalizer however as the Flyers had a giveaway in the defensive third of the field in the 32nd minute that Ptah Myers collected, ripping a 20yd bender into the upper 90 of the far post that Handy had no chance on. Despite few shots on goal, both teams had found ways to score twice, and the half finished up with even play from both sides with UD owning a 7-3 advantage in shots on goal and a 5-1 edge in corner kicks.

The Flyers stepped things up in the second half with all the same weapons they’ve used in the past — hustle and intensity. While UMass had the wind at their back and relegated their tactics to kick-and-run, Dayton tried working the ball on the ground. At times it worked and at other times UMass’ speed broke things up. Nevertheless, UD stayed with the gameplan and had several great opportunities to slip a ball through the middle of the UMass defense for a breakaway on goal. To their credit however, their defense remained organized and sent a flurry of Hail Mary balls down the field to the speedy Minutemen strikers. And when the defense wasn’t booming balls, GK Colin Burns was. But even in 1v1 opportunities on long balls, the Flyer defenders managed to slow down players such as UMass MF Andrew Eicher until help arrived.

The match became more physical in the final 30 minutes of play. Dayton finally hit paydirt in the 64th minute when George Nanchoff took a free kick from 28yds out that kissed off the post and past Burns for a 3-2 Dayton lead. It was a fantastic strike in a match that needed some of that caliber to break the tie because both defenses appeared strong enough to play out the rest of regulation and a pair of overtimes without conceding another goal. And with only handful of offensive chances by both sides resulting in shots on goal, Nanchoff’s goal looked like the game-winner even with 25 minutes to play as long as the Flyers didn’t do anything stupid. The Flyers didn’t.

UD did a nice job of winning balls in the air as UMass went strictly to kick-and-run in the final 10 minutes. Handy had to come out of the box on a couple of occasions to snuff out a couple dangerous balls, but more often than not his defensive line did enough to turn UMass away just as they approached the penalty box. UD had a couple strong chances of their own late in the match to add a fourth goal, but it never came to fruition and before long all the Flyers had to do was milk some clock and stick a fork in this one.

UD played just 14 players Sunday as Joe Hall, Jeff Suzuki, and Brennan Randquist came off the bench. Sophomore stopper Nate Darr had an excellent game and won a number of balls in the air including a cross in the box as he pushed up on offense that Darr just missed putting away. It’s becoming more and more difficult to single out players who played well or played hard because the magic potion is rubbing off on everyone.

With the victory, Dayton earned yet another quality win on the year. The jury is still out on whether UMass is a Top-15 program considering their ranking. In our opinion they aren’t, but perhaps they are somewhere in the Top-25 or 30. Friday night’s loss to lowly Xavier took some panache of Sunday’s victory, but UMass is still one of the top teams in the A-10 and the Flyers are one step closer to gaining total control of the A-10 race. With Notre Dame’s 5-2 loss to Rutgers this weekend, Dayton has a chance to move up from #2 to #1 in the NSCAA Great Lakes Region should the pollsters drop the Irish from their #1 perch. Sunday’s victory was especially nice considering Dayton was without Chris Rolfe. UD is still a potent team without him if they give a solid effort, but there’s also no mistaking that UD is a much better team when he’s on the field. So it was nice to see Dayton take care of business against a good opponent in light of Rolfe’s absence.

Dayton remains at home next weekend with a pair of matches against George Washington and Richmond. A couple victories and the Flyers are looking great in the A-10 regular season race. The Colonels have always given the Flyers a tough match while Richmond has as much talent as anyone in the league. Coach Schureck’s teams always seem to take care of business at home and if Rolfe is once again healthy, should provide for some fireworks.