Sunday was the wrong day for Dayton Dutch Lions FC to have to send a heavily rotated roster onto the pitch. A 4-1 loss at home to Lady Victory FC prevented Dayton from pulling even with the visitors near the top of the WPSL Midwestern Conference standings.
When player availability kept four of the rostered center backs out of the lineup, Dutch Lions Head Coach Bradley Schluter was forced to insert players out of position. Lady Victory FC played a direct style suited to exploit the inexperience in the middle of the Dayton defense. Long balls from the back and through balls into space kept the Dutch Lions in a track meet with speedy Lady Victory forwards for much of the match.
The visitors opened the scoring in the 23rd minute. Katie Soderstrom ran onto a ball played into space behind the Dutch Lions back line. She carried it into the box and beat the Dayton goalkeeper 1v1. Lady Victory FC tallied a second goal one minute later. A corner kick played to the back post eluded the Dutch Lions defenders, and Lady Victory knocked it over the goal line. In the 35th minute, Lady Victory FC’s Heather McNab collected a pass on the right wing. McNab dribbled unopposed to the top of the box and ripped a strike into the upper 90.
The Lions, though, would not go gentle into that good night. The home side battled to get back into the match in the second half. The Dayton goal came on a Herculean effort by Laney Huber. Quick feet allowed Huber to get by a defender in the box. Huber was nearly brought to the ground when the defender grabbed fistfulls of jersey, but muscled through the foul and finished inside the far post. Momentum from the Dutch Lions goal was quelled when Lady Victory answered two minutes later. Another Heather McNab blast under the crossbar restored the 3-goal margin.
Dayton [2-3-3] stayed at 9 points on the season, while Lady Victory [5-1-0] moved up to 15 points.