The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Dayton Christian boys soccer's rally comes up short

Dayton Christian battles back in the second half to make the match close.

High school sports results for May 26
5/26/12
Wayne boys win team track title
5/25/12
Bellbrook tennis duo advances to semifinals
5/25/12
Jefferson grad takes lessons from Miami Heat cousin
5/25/12
T-Bolts excited for state debut
5/25/12
> More high school headlines

By John Cummings, Contributing Writer Updated 12:32 AM Sunday, November 6, 2011

HAMILTON — With his squad tired, beaten up, frustrated and down 3-0 at halftime, Dayton Christian High School boys soccer coach Steve Vaughan tried something different during the intermission of Saturday’s Division III regional final with Madeira.

He went last.

“I let the other coaches talk first,” Vaughan said following a 4-2 loss that capped a 16-3-2 season. “I told them we have been a second-half team this year, but no matter what happens to walk off the field with no regrets. I wanted them to make sure they did everything they could, and I told them I believed in them.”

The Warriors almost made believers out of Madeira as well.

Dayton Christian outshot and outplayed the Mustangs in the second 40 minutes, closing the gap to 3-2 before yielding a goal on a penalty kick in the 76th minute.

“They thought we could still win the game,” DC senior Christian Alexander said. “It was a 3-0 hole, but we could still get out of it. I think we could’ve. I think they (Madeira) knew it, too. That call (on the penalty kick) took care of it.”

The call on the penalty kick was one of several questionable ones. The Mustangs scored their first goal on a play where they appeared to be offside and their third came off a free kick following a borderline foul call.

“It stops the flow,” Alexander said of all the foul calls on the Warriors. “We would get taken out, and there would be nothing called; every time we touched a kid on the ball, he would fall and start crying and whining, and the whistle would blow.”

After a pair of scoring chances were missed in the second half after players were dragged down in the box, the Warriors got on the board when Alex Lupinek rifled home a shot from the top of the box in the 66th minute. Alexander followed with a goal in the 18th minute, and the Warriors had three other shots sail just wide or just high.

Share this article