Sept. 2, 2008

Alumni Blog #3

Dear Flyer Faithful,

We used our momentum from pre-season and got off to a great start!

In our home-opening game, we faced Denver who received a handful of pre-season hype based on their tremendous recruiting class. College Soccer News named them one of the top eight programs on the rise. With a tremendous crowd on hand, we had the misfortune of Mother Nature sending in a streak of lightning above Baujan field to start the game and a 30 minute delay that followed. Once the weather cleared, we took the field and began our 2008 campaign.

As always in the first game, things were choppy but once we settled down, Alex Torda did what he does best- scored a goal. Alex is currently on the 2008 Herman Trophy Watch List. We controlled the match from there on out and put in two second half goals with Florian DeCamps and Zach Weiss getting the final two tallies. Our defense played well throughout but finally let in a goal late in the game.

On Sunday, we faced our local rivals, Wright State. We were determined to win a championship and even up the overall series with the Raiders. The boys played very well in the first half and capitalized on a set piece to go up 1-0. Early in the second half, we went down a man to a red card and that changed our game plan. We also lost another defender to injury as well as a wide midfielder.

Our depth played a major role and our block of eight maintained their shape for the next 30 minutes to capture the Dayton Flyer Classic Championship with two wins and the best goal differential of the tournament. Alex Davis preserved the shut-out in the nets. Zach Weiss was named tournament MVP.

The opening weekend of college soccer is complete. It was exciting to read up on all the scores and track the results. The Atlantic 10 faired quite well but in the end Dayton and Charlotte were the only two teams that won both games. We learned this afternoon that we received a vote for the Top 25 in the first NSCAA National Ranking. It is exciting news but we also know there is a lot of soccer to be played.

We depart this weekend to compete in the Panther Invitational which is hosted by University of Wisconsin. We know that we may be within two victories of earning a Top 25 ranking.

Go Flyers!