Dayton men’s soccer makes most of ‘rare opportunity’ against No. 1 team

“I don’t know if they really wanted to be there,” Bakken said, “and obviously they were high in confidence because they had just got ranked No. 1, which made us even more pumped for the game.”

West Virginia moved from No. 4 to No. 1 earlier in the day. Dayton used the ranking as motivation to record the program’s first victory against a No. 1 team.

“Honestly, it was the energy that we brought to the table,” coach Dennis Currier said. “It’s a rare opportunity to play a No. 1 team in the country. We talked about that before — to make some history. We’ve been close before, but you don’t get many opportunities. So the guys brought this level of intensity to the field, and we swarmed West Virginia. I would say it took about five minutes to get into the rhythm of the game because they do play at a very high pace. Once we matched that pace and got that first goal, we started to really roll, and we did that for 90 minutes. It was just a really great performance from the team.”

Dayton (6-2-3, 1-1-2) had not played a No. 1 team since losing 1-0 to Southern Methodist on Sept. 17, 2006, in Albuquerque, N.M.

West Virginia was No. 2 a season ago when Dayton lost 1-0 to the Mountaineers in Morgantown, W.Va. Dayton tied No. 2 Kentucky 2-2 in 2022. Dayton lost 3-0 at No. 4 West Virginia in 2021 and 3-1 to No. 10 Kentucky that same season.

Dayton earned this victory three days after suffering its first loss in Atlantic 10 Conference play: 4-2 at home against Fordham (5-3-4, 2-1-2). The Flyers lost despite having a 33-9 advantage in shots.

“We played really well against Fordham,” Currier said. “We just lacked some of the finishing and gave up some set pieces. Soccer is a strange game.”

Dayton didn’t have trouble finishing shots against West Virginia, building a 3-0 lead in the first half and adding a goal early in the second half to take a 4-0 lead.

“It was a great game,” Bakken said. “I feel like we have been struggling with putting the ball away, especially the last two games. We pieced it all together in this game with the intensity and the communication and energy, which led to us being all over them.”

This was the latest strong result in non-conference play for Dayton. In September, it won 2-0 at Indiana and tied then ninth-ranked Western Michigan 1-1. Dayton ranks 33rd in the RPI.

Dayton returns to action at noon Saturday at St. Bonaventure (6-5-3, 2-1-2). It hopes the victory against West Virginia (8-1-3) paves the way toward another strong finish to the regular season. In its last eight games a year ago, Dayton won four times and tied the other four, and that led to three victories in the A-10 tournament and the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 2015.

“The A-10 is probably the strongest it’s ever been this year,” Currier said. “I think we’ve had almost six teams in the national rankings at some stage. Very good RPIs. It’s a very dynamic conference. Road battles are very difficult. You play in a lot of different venues. You travel long distances. It’s hard on the student athletes. You have to be very dynamic to win it. I also think it’s important to be at your best late in the season. That’s what happened to us last year.”