A 45-minute delay due to lightning. Horizontal rain. Wind gusts reaching 60mph. An apparent tornado that spawned severe damage in nearby Xenia. It was a complete quagmire at Baujan Field Wednesday night but it wasn’t enough to keep UDPride and about 65 other brave souls from watching the Dayton Flyers down Bowling Green 3-1 under what can only be described as inhospitable conditions. The Flyers win their fourth straight and improve to 5-2-0 (0-0) on the season.

The contest had all the makings of a great evening. Time Warner Cable brought in the video van to broadcast the game on television. The microphones and national anthem were ready to go. The concessions cart was in place. And the ticket takers were in position. Then all hell broke loose as someone turned on the faucet, flushed the toilet, and put everyone on spin cycle for the next two hours as insane weather conditions forced an otherwise marquee matchup into a game of survival. The cable guys and announcers packed it in and gave up, and so too did most of the fans. UDPride fought the good fight however and stayed from the first whistle to the last. Surprisingly, the Flyers actually put forth a well-played game in spite of the horrendous conditions and showed their own survival skills.

Dayton took control of the game from the opening kickoff and made the Falcons chase the ball all night. The Flyers had several good chances early in the first half and took advantage of a deflection in the box that UD pounced on and buried past the BG goalkeeper just 10 minutes into the contest for 1-0 lead. Dayton kept the pressure on with excellent give-and-gos, overlaps, and through-balls that turned into golden scoring chances through the remainder of the half. Dayton added a second goal midway through the first half, then stretched the lead to 3-0 by halftime. It may have been 5-0 at the half had Dayton put away all their chances.

The Flyers stepped off the gas a bit in the second half — and it showed as BGSU controlled the ball much better and created a few scoring chances. The Dayton defensive third got sloppy in the middle 20 minutes of the game and gave the Falcons a faint crack of hope to somehow get back in the contest. Dayton made a couple key defensive plays however and BGSU managed just one goal in the second half when Flyer goalkeeper Matt Hutchins was forced to take on a striker near the end line. Despite the narrow angle, BGSU ricocheted a shot off the far post for their lone score of the night.

The Flyers showed a strong ability to play well in very poor playing conditions. Coaches are most concerned about wet soccer balls that skip past defenders or wind-aided free kicks that get misjudged in the air, but Dayton was prepared in every phase to handle the elements and made things look easy throughout the night. Also to their credit, Dayton outhustled BGSU to the 50/50 balls for the entire game, taking advantage of their hard work to build quick counter-attacks that frustrated the visiting team — especially in the first half. BGSU fields a competitive team and it’s to Head Coach Dave Schureck’s credit that Dayton showed the few who cared to stick around that the Flyers were clearly the better team, which is why the entire club earns the UDPride Player of the Game award for getting the job done in spite of the elements.

The team resumes action on Sep. 29, in their Atlantic-10 conference home opener against the Fordham Rams — assuming Baujan Field is dry by then.

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