The Dayton Flyers did everything right Friday night against the visiting LaSalle Explorers — except find the back of the net. As a result, a dominating performance wasn’t enough as UD dropped their fifth straight match, this time by a 1-0 score before a supportive contingent at Baujan Field. Dayton falls to 5-8-1 (0-5) while LaSalle improves to 5-7-1 (3-2).

Those who’ve played soccer or merely followed it for any length of time know that winning and losing are the two most overrated indicators of play. Unlike most other sports, soccer produces odd outcomes in spite of obvious advantages and no better was that reality underlined than Friday night. The Flyers peppered the LaSalle goal mouth all night, controlled the midfield, and took care of business in the back line — with the exception a single breakdown just before halftime that resulted in the game’s only score. LaSalle simply had few chances, but cashed in on perhaps their best chance of the match. It seemed like Dayton would get the equalizer soon enough, then take the lead, then add to the lead. It never happened. Behind a brilliant performance by Explorer GK Stash Graham, the Philly natives came up with all the critical saves, clears, poke-aways, and ricochets to turn away a massive onslaught by the Flyer offense.

The first half was in favor of Dayton and it was hard to imagine the Flyers being losers of four straight games with the effort they were putting forth. Despite the losing streak, the Flyers remained undefeated at home (4-0) and looked every bit the better team in all phases of the game. The midfield and defense did an outstanding job of winning balls in the air and scooping up 50/50 balls on the ground. With Chris Rolfe showing off his incredible foot skills and Jesse Faily pushing his size around offensively, the Flyers made things happen in the offensive third of the field. Dayton put shots on goal including windups, headers, and rebounds, but nothing quite good enough to get past Stash Graham who put on a show of his own.

As halftime approached and the score still tied at 0-0, the Flyers appeared ready to regroup at halftime and just continue where they left off. After all, Dayton was dominant and the law of averages dictated that goals were coming. LaSalle caught a break in the 43rd minute however when Mike Topper took advantage of a giveaway in the Flyer defense and sneaked one past GK Steve Ladislaw from 18 yards out. Unfortunate indeed, but the Flyers knew they were the better side and it was only a matter of time before the lid would come off the LaSalle goal.

Ironically, the bad luck Dayton fought against in the first half got even worse in the second half. As the game wore on, the Flyers grew even stronger and before long the entire match was being played in the LaSalle half of the field. Dayton threw literally two dozen balls in the penalty box in the last 20 minutes of the game, including corner kicks, free kicks, crosses, long balls, through balls, flicks, and dinks. GK Stash Graham pushed aside no less than five shots on goal that were certain scores on any other night. As the game neared its end, Dayton threw the kitchen sink at LaSalle and the Explorers still managed to find a way to shut the door in time. Sometimes the better team doesn’t always win and Friday’s loss was a great example of the heartbreaking nature of soccer when you’re on the short end of the stick. The Flyers outshot LaSalle 29-7 and had a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks. The team just couldn’t hit paydirt.

While any loss is hard to take, the match was filled with too many positives to walk away feeling shortchanged. Dayton played extremely well and looked as potent offensively as they have all season — a positive move in the right direction considering the Flyers have had trouble scoring in several matches. The midfield dominated the possession game and the defense gave the offense a legitimate chance to win. If Dayton plays anywhere near this well for the remainder of the season, UD can and will finish with a 6-5 mark in conference play.

Freshman defender Dasan Robinson had a monster game filling in for junior Dan Thomas. Robinson won nearly every challenge in his direction and stepped in front of his man on numerous occasions to steal the pass before LaSalle had a chance to push the ball on offense. He also found his way up field on several occasions when Explorer players couldn’t keep up with his speed and work rate as he went after loose balls. Redshirt freshman Jesse Faily performed equally well at striker and gave the Flyers some much-needed physicality that played off Rolfe’s cat-like moves very well. Sunday Isename came off the bench and looked more active. He created several good chances in the box. Many other players had solid games too, perhaps too many to name in a match Dayton had no trouble dominating.

Dayton returns to action on Sunday against the Fordham Rams. Not having seen the four road matches before Friday’s loss to LaSalle, it’s hard to say what happened, but Dayton has played very well at home all year and should have no trouble doing so once again. With such a young team, Coach Dave Schureck has the opportunity to give the underclassmen serious minutes now that the chances of making the 4-team Atlantic-10 Tournament are all but finished. The Flyers have shown the ability to play exceptionally well for such a young squad and it’s just a matter of time before the wealth of talent gets on the same page every night and once again dominates the conference. It’s not out of the question that UD could be playing some of the best soccer in the A-10 by year-end.