The rain held off Friday night at Baujan Field as the Dayton Flyers and #12 Oakland Grizzlies put on a splendid soccer match that ended in a 1-1 tie after two overtimes. Dayton goalkeeper Matt Handy, making his first appearance, performed magnificently in goal and stopped a Grizzly penalty kick in the first half to help earn UD a hard-fought tie despite playing a man down late in the second half and overtimes against perhaps the best team to visit Baujan this year. Dayton’s record now stands at 4-1-1 while Oakland earns their third tie of the season and now sits at 4-0-3.

While the story of the match was the high level of play, an equally compelling story was the inept officiating for all 110 minutes of the game. Players and coaches were subjected to officiating that was so ill it took away from an otherwise outstanding performance by both sides. The officiating started off bad, got worse, and never recovered. And the head referee even had a hard time being consistently inept. Both teams took the field and after the opening kickoff, neither side ever had a chance to get a fair shake from the whistle. Nothing made sense, except the obvious reality that the people responsible for keeping things fair and balanced couldn’t even keep their shoes tied.

While the head referee was out in la-la land, the Flyers and Grizzlies said “the hell with him” and got down to business anyway. Dayton got the better of things in the opening minutes as Mpoki Tenende chipped a ball over the Oakland goalkeeper to give Dayton a 1-0 lead just seven minutes into the match. From there on, both sides dropped the hammer and pummeled each other with physical tackles, all-out sprints, head-cracking aerial enforcement, and a little bit of juke-and-jive in between. As the first half wore on, Oakland settled in a bit and took a slight advantage in overall play. A hard shot in the Flyer box was saved by Matt Handy, but Oakland’s Shahar Ktovim jumped on the rebound and smacked a shot from just a few yards from the near post to tie the game at 1-1. Oakland had a couple free kicks just outside the box that UD managed to turn away shortly thereafter. One of them however proved to be nearly too much to overcome as Oakland prepared a free kick into the Dayton box, and the referee — whom we will keep anonymous — issued a yellow card to Flyer defender Dasan Robinson for reasons still unknown, abruptly awarding a penalty kick to Oakland. It was the fourth match in a row UD has fallen prey to a PK. Fortunately, Flyer GK Matt Handy saved everyone’s bacon by picking the left side and denying Oakland a 2-1 lead with a terrific save. From there on, Dayton seemed to pick things up, which wasn’t easy to do considering how hard both teams were playing.

Both sides had a couple more decent scoring chances but the half ended deadlocked at 1-1. The Flyers finished the first 45 minutes with a 11-9 edge in shots and 2-1 advantage in corner kicks. Things would only get better however.

In the second half, Dayton started cookin’. Along with Tenende’s bottomless gas tank, midfielder Tye Stebbins stepped up his game and sold out on several loose balls, busting tail on several plays to win two or three balls in the same series of runs. Stebbins’ hustle is downright amazing at times and his teammates feed off of it. Dayton stayed organized in the back line, but up top, the Grizzlies double-teamed forward Chris Rolfe all over the field, giving up few touches to Rolfe’s dangerous feet. Oakland had tremendous speed of their own and exceptional foot skills, allowing them to counterattack equally well and challenge the Flyer goal. Handy came up huge on a pair of occasions in the second half to keep the game deadlocked at 1-1. As the second half wore on, Oakland appeared to tire, and Dayton only got stronger.

In the final 15 minutes of regulation, Coach Schureck’s club really turned up the heat, forcing the play and making Oakland come up with defensive stops time and again. Dayton got another bad break in the 83rd minute when Robinson earned his second yellow card of the game for apparent Mickey Mouse reasons that remain quite preposterous. The Flyers were frosted now and playing 12 on 10 when one includes the referee. UD actually outplayed Oakland in nearly all phases for the remainder of regulation and overtime despite the disadvantage. With 90 minutes in the books, the game remained tied at 1-1, but Dayton had momentum on their side. After all, they outshot Oakland 8-0 in the second half and had a pair of corner kicks while OU had zero. The last moments of the second half also gave Flyer fans a chance to see redshirt sophomore Jesse Faily for the first time this year at forward. Faily played only briefly but did a number of good things and should only help the team in future games.

UD picked up where they left off by starting the first overtime very well. The Flyers were hustling and giving such a gritty effort that they looked like the team with the extra man at times. Chris Rolfe had a great chance to win the game after beating three players off the dribble and chipping the goalkeeper, but he mis-hit the ball and put it over the crossbar. Rolfe fired a heater at the goal in the 105th minute that might have found the back of the net, but it hit a player about 10 yards in front of the goal mouth and was eventually cleared away. After 110 minutes of action, the teams played to a draw, which was fitting because neither side deserved to lose.

Without question, Friday’s match the best performance all year. The effort was there, the hustle was relentless, and the tactical sharpness was as good as we’ve seen. Everyone played well but Handy’s performance in goal in his first match as a Flyer ended an equally fine storyline. If the same effort is there for the remainder of the season, UD will be hard-pressed to lose a game. And the same can probably be said for Oakland. The Grizzlies looked every bit a Top-20 club and have all the tools to give a number of top teams around the country some real trouble. But that also means the Flyers possess the same potential. And we think Dayton is in a great position to rip off a number of wins in the coming weeks. UD played 19 men against Oakland and never had a dropoff no matter who was on the field. Players such as George Nanchoff, Jim Graham, and Antii Arst played especially well off the bench and could just as easily start. And most of the talented freshman are still taking notes on the sidelines and learning from the upperclassmen.

Dayton travels across town to local rival Wright State on Sunday evening for a 6pm showdown with the Raiders. The Flyers have had very good success against WSU in recent years and pulled off a dramatic come-from-behind tie on a last-minute Denny Clanton goal in their last visit to WSU’s Alumni Field. WSU is ranked 10th in the Great Lakes Region and on a winning streak, which means UD has a great chance to earn yet another win against ranked foe in the region, making their potential NCAA resume’ at the end of the year even more compelling.