Great goal by Shane Smith in final minutes moves DDL FC into 5th place
Friday, June 28, 2013. DAYTON, OHIO - The Charlotte Eagles seemed to get away with three points at Miami Valley Hospital Stadium, but a run by Shane Smith on the left side with a give and go with Brandon Schwartzendruber followed by a great shot in the right corner made the score 2-2 and therefore extended the unbeaten streak to nine games.
Neither the Dayton Dutch Lions (6-2-5) nor the Charlotte Eagles (5-2-7) came out on top in a game that saw a weather-delayed start, the final score was 2-2. Charlotte struck first in the 22nd minute when Jorge Herrera took advantage of a long ball serve and chipped it to Christian Ramirez who shot past Dayton goalkeeper Matt Williams. Dayton's best chance and most beautiful attack came when the ball was played from left back through the midfield and to Garner on the outside right. He came inside making room for the overlapping Granger who served the ball beautifully on the head of Westdijk right in front of the goal but his header went just over the crossbar. Deep into the first half the Lions did get the equalizer with Dayton took more control of the game and was awarded a penalty kick that was taken by DeLass. The hard PK was punched back out by Charlotte keeper Eric Reed, only for DeLass to control it and pulling the trigger for the tie, 1-1.
In the 2nd half the game was pretty even until the 62nd minute, when Charlotte’s Stephen Okai shoved a placed cross by Herrera into the Dayton goal from 25 yards out in the low left corner and Charlotte stormed ahead 2-1. Dayton muscled its way back to tie things up and brought leading scorer Gibson Bardsley and Brandon Schwartzendruber. Bardsley almost scored the 2-2 when his shot from 25 yards out barely missed the goal and went just wide. The Lions did get the equalizer in the 85th minute when Shane Smith came all the way from his own half and set up a give and go with Brandon Swartzendruber whose precise pass back to Smith made him run into the top left corner of the box and Sahne found success nailing the ball in the right back corner of the Atlanta goal out of reach for Reed to score 2-2. The last chance came for Gibson Bardsley who took a shot just outside the box but Reed saved it.
Dayton Coach Patrick Bal is happy with how the season has progressed. “Today completed the first half of our season with 23 points in thirteen games. We’re very pleased. We have a nine game undefeated streak, and that’s something, that’s huge. Today feels like more of a loss – I think we were the better team the whole game overall, but with the first half of the season going well, I can’t complain.”
Line up: Williams, Granger, Presciado, Wiet, Smith, DeLass, Harada, Khutsidze (Bardsley), Garner, Westdijk, Madigan (Schwartzendruber)
Dayton faces the Rochester Rhinos (3-7-5) on July 4th at 1:00 pm and then plays the Richmond Kickers (7-0-5) on Saturday, July 6th at 7:30 pm.