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Tarnoczi, DU shoot down Dayton in OT
DENVER — Now that’s how to break in a new stadium.
The University of Denver men’s soccer team sent an overflow crowd home happy as Alex Tarnoczi scored 3 minutes, 4 seconds into overtime in a 2-1 victory over Dayton on Saturday.
The game was the first for the men’s team at Pioneer Field, built just to the west of the Ritchie Center. A standing-room-only crowd of 1,652 watched Tarnoczi score on a rebound of a shot by Jarod Stigall shortly after OT began.
“I just turned, and I saw Stigall cutting across the box,” said Tarnoczi, a freshman from Castle Rock. “And I played it to Stigall. Stigall cut a guy, and he shot it and it came off the goalkeeper. And I just ran in and put it in. It was a good goal. Definitely a lot of movement off the ball, which kind of created it.”
For much of the game, it didn’t look like DU would be in a position to win. Dayton’s Isaac Kissi scored on a header less than 20 minutes into the match to give the Flyers the lead, and DU found itself chasing.
Dayton matched DU in the first half in speed, intensity and determination — not an easy feat — and the pace of the match was fantastic. Each team ran down every 50-50 ball with abandon, and no ball dropped from the sky without two bodies colliding underneath. This looked like a 1-0 lead that could hold up.
But DU is not a team people enjoy playing against. Teams that schedule the Pioneers should make sure they’re wearing their cups. They should not wear tear-away jerseys. And they should never go without shinguards. The Pioneers are aggressive and physical, and slowly these attributes began to work against Dayton.
By the hour mark, Dayton looked frustrated, and DU looked like its breakthrough would be just a matter of time.
It was.
Matt Kirby got the equalizer in the 62nd minute on a long ball to the right edge of the box from Stigall. Kirby raced Dayton goalkeeper Josh Lavallee to the ball, and the Pioneer sophomore got to it first. Running at full speed, Kirby tapped the ball over Lavallee and watched it bounce toward the net and in.
It was not an easy thing to do, but Kirby took an aw-shucks approach.
“I was just kind of in the moment, in the zone,” he said. “When I got there, I saw the goalie and saw the goal and just put my foot on it to aim it toward the goal with a little chip. I went down and looked from the goal and prayed for it to go in. And it did.”
And the frustration continued for Dayton. Alex Torda picked up a yellow just before Kirby’s goal, and Jack Pearson got one a few minutes after. As Denver took more and more control of the game, the tipping point came in the 71st minute, when goal-scorer Kissi picked up a red card. Kissi had been getting roughed up all evening, as most of the Dayton team had been, and he retaliated. He was ejected, and Denver coach Bobby Muuss immediately got up and began yelling, “Push the game!”
The Pioneers did, and it eventually paid off with Tarnoczi’s goal in overtime.
“It was awesome having all our fans here,” Tarnoczi said. “It was really exciting for me, and I think it’s really big for the program. Now we’re going to get people out here and they can see that we can play. And hopefully we’ll be able to do it again. I’m really excited to play here.”
ON THE OTHER HAND … As nice as opening night was, it’s doubtful Dayton will want to come back anytime soon.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Tarnoczi earned that honor at 93:04.
MORE ON PIONEER FIELD: Not only were the stadium seats packed, the hill right behind the southern goal was littered with folks watching the game.
SAVE OF THE MATCH: Lavallee’s save on Stigall’s shot in overtime was brilliant. For an instant, it occurred to me that this particular save would be the crucial moment that preserved a tie for Dayton. A few seconds later, Tarnoczi’s goal proved me wrong, but it didn’t take away from the quality of Lavallee’s save on Stigall. Tarnoczi agreed: “He made a great save off Stigall; he really did.” Lavallee had another moment that seemed as if it would prove to be crucial. DU’s Nick Brant redirected a Stigall free kick on goal with a wicked glancing header in the 67th minute. Although Brant’s shot went right at Lavallee, the goalkeeper had to be alert on the bang-bang play. And the save prevented what would have been a spectacular goal.
WHAT’S NEXT: The Pioneers host Belmont University at 2 p.m. Sunday.
UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON: Dayton has players from Zambia; Sweden; Coventry England; Nottingham, England; and Ghana. The Flyers also have Tyler Picard, an alumnus of Regis Jesuit High School in Denver.
DAYTON STARTERS: Lavallee, Randy Dennis, Sonny Renner, Ryan Handbury, Torda, Ryan Bauer, Tommy Watkins, Kissi, Zach Weiss, Pearson, Peter Chilemena.
DU STARTERS: Joe Willis, Drew Beckie, Michael Perry, Kris Banghart, Jesse Henderson, Tarnoczi, Blake Shannon, Kyle Varvil, Kirby, Stigall, captain Collin Audley.
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an affiliate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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