The Dayton Flyer season came to an end Friday night at a bitterly cold Baujan Field as the UMass Minutemen exacted revenge from a loss to the Flyers just a week ago to beat UD 4-2 and move into the title game against Richmond on Sunday afternoon. The winner will represent the Atlantic-10 and receive an automatic birth into the NCAA Tournament. Dayton’s season is complete at 11-7-2 after a second place finish in the league race. The Flyers have qualified for the A-10 postseason tournament four of the last five years based on finishing in the top four of the league standings.

A week ago, Dayton hammered UMass and looked the better team, but the Minutemen, a #3 seed, got out of the gates early and took control of the match. The Flyers were forced into a defensive bunker as the first 10 minutes unfolded while UMass put on an offensive push that wasn’t seen in their 1-0 defeat to UD just days ago. Quicker to the ball and controlling the possession, UMass had a number of chances to cash in but the Flyer defense held tough. Not long after, Dayton moved the ball into the UMass defensive third and a pair of Chris Rolfe crosses in the box nearly found a Dayton player able to put it away for the first score of the game. But the match turned into a struggle of two defensive teams being able to stop the opposing offense and time and again the back lines for both squads came through and won all the important battles on the field. It wasn’t until the 44th minute that Dayton’s chances took a turn for the worse when Atlantic-10 Offensive Player of the Year Jeff Deren rebounded a Dan Colwell shot for the first score of the match as the first half came to a close. Had the Flyers made it to halftime in a scoreless tie, their chances seemed very good as the match wore on, but the late first half goal seemed to put all the momentum on the UMass side and the second half would spell it out.

Just a goal down, the Flyers were just a break away from getting back into the match, but the Minutemen appeared jacked up from Deren’s goal and were on the prowl to extend the lead. Falling behind 2-0 would be a tall challenge to overcome however and in the 55th minute UMass put Dayton into that predicament with a Yuri Morales goal off a shot from Deren. A major Flyer comeback was in order, but less than three minutes later the Minutemen extinguished what slim hope the Flyers had with their third goal when Shawn Green was left unmarked in the Dayton penalty box and tapped home a corner kick for the 3-0 UMass advantage. The Flyers finally got on the scoreboard in the 60th minute when a questionable call awarded Dayton a penalty kick when Chris Rolfe was taken down just inside the box nearly the left sideline. A questionable call it was because had the match been closer, say a tie game, the head official would have probably swallowed his whistle. In any event, senior Lee Crawford tucker the penalty kick away and trimmed the deficit to 3-1. With just 30 minutes left, Dayton suddenly had more energy and fought hard to pull to within a goal, and perhaps tie the game and send it into overtime.

The Minutemen defense held tough however and UD never solved the back line headed by 6-2 senior J.R. Pouncey, a big-bodied sweeper from Houston, TX, who kept everything organized. UMass finished off the Flyers for good as Deren added his second goal of the match on a wicked blast from the edge of the box that caromed off the cross bar and into the net for a 4-1 lead. Senior Wade Fischer collected a slip pass from sophomore defender Scott Hinshaw and beat the charging goalkeeper with a soft poke to round out the scoring at 4-2 with five seconds remaining.

While the result isn’t what Flyer fans had in mind, Dayton wrapped another another successful season and qualified for their fourth postseason conference tournament in five years. Picked to finish first in the A-10 by us, a second place showing — ahead of quality teams like UMass and Richmond — says a lot about a squad that looked on the conference tournament bubble at the very best just four weeks ago. By going unbeaten in their last six matches, Dayton leapfrogged two teams in the final weekend of regular season play and played their best soccer near the end of the season. Tough losses to Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee were offset by a dramatic tie against Wright State and and wins over Akron, URI, and UMass.

The end of the season also means the end of the line for eight seniors that have been the program’s mainstay over the last four years. Replacing them and rebuilding the midfield won’t be easy, but this year’s newcomers filled in nicely and several incoming recruits are already in the fold to help ease the pain — not including a couple players who sat out the 2001 season for various reasons.

As the UD womens soccer team continues its season, we will follow them as far as they go, then wrap up our UD soccer coverage in the coming weeks with our UDPride Player and Team Awards as well as a postseason checkup with the two head coaches to gauge their impressions of 2001.