Men's Soccer | 11/1/2017 9:34:00 PM
Box Score DAYTON, Ohio – The George Mason men's soccer team's season came to an end on a rainy Wednesday night.
The Patriots suffered a 5-2 loss to Dayton at Baujan Field in the final game of the season. Mason scored the first goal of the contest but the Flyers responded with three goals in a five-minute span and never looked back as sophomore Rok Taneski had three goals and an assist for a seven-point night.
"We started off brightly and were rewarded with a very good goal and had a couple of chances to make it 2-0 before Dayton got on a good roll and finished their chances," Mason head coach
Greg Andrulis said. "Our guys fought hard for 90 minutes, got a second goal, but the hole we dug for ourselves was too big. Dayton is a very good team with arguably the best player in the conference (Taneski) who had a special performance against us."
The Patriots (5-9-2, 0-7-1 Atlantic 10), who lost their seventh in a row, got the scoring going. Senior captain
Henning Dirks scored 10th goal of the season - tied with Taneski for the most in the conference - in the 11th minute. Dirks scored on a breakaway pass from sophomore
Grant Robinson, finishing to the far post for a 1-0 lead.
But Dayton (9-7-2, 6-2) answered quickly to jump in front for good. The Flyers scored two goals 62 seconds apart – in the 16th and 17th minutes. Taneski then scored what proved to be the game-winner on a penalty kick in the 20th minute.
The Flyers then scored twice early in the second half to extend the lead to 5-1. Mason found the net one last time in the 63rd minute. Sophomore
Ryan Mingachos scored his sixth goal of the season on an assist from sophomore
Matt Scoliere.
But that would be the last of the scoring as the Patriots were outshot 26-11. Dayton also held a 14-4 edge in shots on goal. Mason made nine saves, with junior
Tomas Lapnas and freshman
Corey Chambers each playing a half and making four saves apiece. The Patriots also recorded a team save.
Dirks, a native of Munster, Germany, finishes his career with 22 goals and 63 points. His 19 career assists are tied for sixth-most all-time in program history.
