Article By Will Freihofer.  Photos by Cecil Copeland.

The Dayton Flyers have been selected as the second CollegeLAX Team of the Week of the season after two impressive out-of-conference road wins against MCLA Division II top-ten teams Emory and  Savannah College of Art and Design last weekend.

Coach Charlie Mark said he had his team’s depth to thank for outcome of the games, both of which were played at Emory University in Atlanta, far from frozen Dayton, Ohio. Mark said he brought 51 players on the 500-some mile trip and dressed 46 for each of the games.

“We’ve got a big squad,” said Mark. “We run a lot of people in.”

The size of Dayton’s roster proved to be something of a double edged sword in preparing for the games in the midst of a particularly cruel Ohio winter, said attackman Alex Walters, who finished with seven points on the weekend.

“We’d only practiced three times on a full field (before facing Emory in Atlanta),” said Walters. “Other than that we had to practice in this little, little gym. Cramming 46 guys in this little gym at the university, it’s just ridiculous,” he said. Such unfavorable conditions at home made the 9-hour bus ride to Georgia’s greener pastures more bearable, said Walters. “It was great getting out on the grass,” he said.

“I think we have a nice rivalry,” said Mark of his team’s history with Emory, who traveled to Dayton to play the Flyers last season. “We have a lot of respect for each other’s play.” This years installment of the teams’ rivalry was a close one, with Emory closing the gap to a single goal in the fourth quarter. It proved to be too little too late, however, as the Flyers held on for the 12-11 win.

Along with the play of his four midfield lines, Coach Mark credited 2008 MCLA 2nd team All-American defenseman Steven Hurst with anchoring the Flyer defense over the weekend.

“He’s back, and he’s tough,” said Mark of the returning sophomore. Against SCAD, Hurst was moved to cover Bees attackman Shelton Polka in the game’s second half, a matchup Mark said boded will for his defense. Walters said Hurst did a good job containing the shifty attackman, a key to the Flyer’s 10-6 victory and 2-0 record on the weekend.

“Coming into it we knew he kind of ran their offense and he’s definitely a tough guy to cover,” said Hurst. “I just tried to stick with as best I could,” he said.

Hurst said the team initially struggled for lack of practice on ground balls over the weekend. “Coach always tells us hustle can overcome that, so that’s what we tried to do,” said Hurst.

Of his team’s chances of representing the CCLA in Denver for this year’s national tournament, Mark said that he’s primarily concerned with making it through what he takes to be one of the toughest conferences in the league.

“If we can get through the top 3 teams in the CCLA, we’re going to be tough,” he said

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 9:48 pm and is filed under CCLA, MCLA News, Team of the Week, WCLL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.