VCU men’s soccer lose Atlantic 10 Championship game to Dayton, 2-1

Emma Schirmer, Contributing Writer

VCU men’s soccer lost to the Dayton Flyers in the Atlantic 10 championship final on Sunday, Nov. 12. 

The game marks VCU’s first appearance in the finals since 2017 and the fourth time they’ve reached it since joining the A-10 conference, according to VCU Athletics.

The Rams were recently dubbed the A-10 regular season champions. They continued their journey to the title championship game in the A-10 tournament after their 3-1 victory against the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the semi-finals on Wednesday, Nov. 8.  

VCU head coach David Gifford said he was proud of the guys for taking the three chances and battling all the way through the last whistle.

“This is a year and a half of work,” Gifford said. “Day by day we improve; we’re not where we need to be but we’re pretty far along, and I imagine this puts us in a good spot going into the championship finals, especially with a home game, which is key.”

UMass scored early in the first half of the conference semi- finals, and VCU responded with two goals less than five minutes apart and a third in the second half off of a free kick.

Going into Sunday’s game, VCU was looking forward to playing on Richmond soil and getting the home team advantage, according to VCU sophomore defender Gerardo Castillo, who scored the Rams’ first goal.

“We’ve done a lot of work this season, we believe in ourselves and we’re excited to play here at home for the final,” Castillo said. 

The championship game started off strong with both teams trying to make moves past the other’s defense. 

Dayton made the first try at a goal in the third minute, but the ball hit the right goalpost before going out of play.

Early in the first half, VCU junior midfielder Jonathan Kanagwa took a rebound opportunity and slid the ball into the corner of the goal giving the Rams the lead. 

VCU junior midfielder William Hitchcock, who scored the third goal, said the team had been practicing looking for open areas and chances to score all year. 

“We wanted to try and skip on the dangerous areas, let our guys make plays and see what happens,” Hitchcock said. 

Both teams had a couple of chances at a goal, but none were successful and the first half ended remaining scoreless for the Flyers, with the Rams in the lead by one goal. 

The second half started as a mostly defensive game for VCU, with Dayton taking six shots on goal in 15 minutes, according to StatBroadcast. 

After a series of corner kicks and multiple deflected shots on goal, a long ball into the box at minute 68 allowed Dayton to equalize the score when senior forward Kenji Mboma Dem chipped it into the left corner. 

With a tied game, both the Rams and the Flyers began to look for opportunities to take the lead, each having a couple of shots on goal, according to Statbroadcast. 

Throughout the end of the second half, there were four yellow cards issued, one to VCU and three to Dayton, as both teams’ offenses started playing more aggressively. 

In the last minute of the game, after a drop ball due to stalled play because of an injury to VCU’s goalie, the Flyers headed the ball into the back of the net and the game ended 2-1, with Dayton taking home the championship title. 

It was a tough loss for the Rams, especially coming from their win against UMass earlier this week, noted VCU junior midfielder Damian Gallegos. 

“Going into this game we felt like we could win, as long as we kept it together, which I feel like we did, but it wasn’t our best showing,” Gallegos said.

As of Nov. 14, VCU was not selected as an at-large qualifier for the NCAA D1 men’s soccer championship tournament.