Saturday, June 8, 2013
DAYTON, Ohio -- A late goal by Shane Smith gave the Dayton Dutch Lions a 4-4 draw against met the Columbus Crew Reserves on Dayton’s home turf at Beavercreek Stadium in front of 1,621 fans for a zealous and action-packed game. Joel DeLass also scored twice for Dayton, while the Crew Reserves got a pair of goals from Ryan Finley.
The Crew went on the offensive early, creating multiple opportunities with galloping attempts into the box. In a game characterized by quick play and intense pressure by both teams, Columbus drew first blood, with Kyle Hyland serving a cross to the head of Finley, who found the net in the sixth minute.
“There was so much space between the lines and our defense was one on one a lot of the time,” Dutch Lions coach Patrick Bal said. “(The Crew) are fast and they play more direct. Our midfielders would receive the ball and touch it several times and pass. These guys open up, pass, and their strikers are already moving, so everything’s a notch quicker. And we were sometimes just a little late.”
Still going strong, both teams linked through their midfield with razor-sharp passing and extraordinary action throughout the half. On multiple occasions, Dayton’s Taylor Lord was able to disrupt the Crew’s attack several times during first half of the match.
A Crew handball in the penalty area in the 27th minute produced a Dayton goal, which DeLass deftly played to the left corner from the penalty spot, putting the Dutch Lions ahead for the first time. The Crew were able to get back on level terms nine minutes later as they took advantage of a Dayton foul, Konrad Warzycha’s dropping free kick finding the back of the Dutch Lions’ net to tie things up.
The battle continued, and a frustrated Crew’s Ethan Finlay pushed his man in the penalty area to give the Dutch Lions their second penalty kick of the half in stoppage time. DeLass again calmly put away the spot kick, sending Crew goalkeeper Matt Lampson the wrong way, as Dayton took a 3-2 lead into the halftime break.
The intensity continued in the second half, when Columbus’ Warzycha took a touch and quickly played the ball out wide to Finley on the wing. Finley served the ball into Dayton’s near post, but Dutch Lions’ keeper Matt Williams was able to punch the ball away, only for his clearance to find Finley’s feet, and the forward put home his second goal of the game to tie the game again.
The Crew then took the lead in the 68th minute as an easy ball bounced just inside the left post from Ben Speas to Bernardo Anor that caught Williams flat-footed, allowing Columbus to take a 4-3 lead.
The Dutch Lions answered again, however, when an 89th-minute corner kick drifted into a sea of orange, finding Gregory Preciado, who cleanly tapped it Smith for a low finish to earn his side a point. Bal praised his side’s effort to get a draw late on.
“This team has a huge heart--they’ve shown us this so many times already,” Bal said.
The Dutch Lions return to action against visiting VSI Tampa Bay FC (6-3-1) on Sunday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. ET at Beavercreek Stadium. The Dutch Lions then hit the road to the west coast for two rematches, starting with the Phoenix FC Wolves (2-8-3) on Friday, June 21 and then traveling to Los Angeles to face the LA Blues (5-5-4) on Sunday, June 23rd. For season and individual game tickets, visit the Dutch Lions’ website.