INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI men's soccer team opened its two-game exhibition slate on Tuesday night (Aug. 17) with a 4-2 loss to defending Atlantic 10 Conference champion Dayton at the on-campus Michael A. Carroll Stadium.

"Certainly you never want to come out on the losing side of the score line, but in the preseason it's incredibly important to take that result and put it in a box and put it on the sideline," head coach Brian Barnett said. "Being preseason, we wanted to really focus on our objectives and see how we stacked up in that regard. I thought we were really good in a number of areas and by and large, looking back at tonight, we checked a lot of boxes. 

"We've spent a tremendous amount of time focusing on the attacking side of the ball and while we only scored two goals, nonetheless we created a number of opportunities in which we could have put more away tonight. At the same time, we haven't worked a lot on the defensive side of things thus far and at times it showed."

Dayton owned the lead nearly the entire match as the visiting Flyers opened the scoring in the fifth minute and led 2-0 at the break. IUPUI cut the lead in half on a Riley Shives penalty kick in the 47th minute, only to see the Flyers extend the advantage in the 59th minute. 

Caleb Hussain rocketed home a header in the 62nd minute to make things interesting before UD netted the final score of the game in the 87th minute. The Flyers outshot IUPUI 20-9 overall and 13-5 on target, but the Jaguars showed well against one of the region's top programs. 

Dayton grabbed a quick 1-0 lead when Elias Harryson headed home a near post corner kick past Quinn McCallion for the day's first score. IUPUI's Chris Workman tried to answer with a drive from 20-yard out, only to see it sail just over the bar in the game's 11th minute. The Flyers doubled their fun in the 33rd minute when Michael Adedokun ripped a shot past McCallion off service from Tyler Swanbeck. The Flyers nearly made it 3-0 before intermission, but McCallion saved two of his best saves for the waning minutes of the half. 

Seemingly recharged after the break, the IUPUI offense came out on the attack and quickly created a quality scoring chance. After an IUPUI corner kick, the Jags had a shot attempt from in close glance off the arm of a Dayton defender, resulting in an easy penalty kick call. Shives took the attempt and blasted home a rocket to make it a one-goal margin. UD's Jake Feiner gave the guests some breathing room when he hit a rebound of his own shot attempt past Lucas Morefield in the 59th minute to make it 3-1. 

IUPUI refused to stay on the mat and two players first touches of the game resulted in a Jaguar score. The Jags earned a corner kick and opted to bring on three substitutions before the restart, which included Hussain and Ethan Miller. Gianni Catenacci bent the free kick towards the near post to Miller, who flicked a pass on to Hussain. Hussain then climbed above the crowd and redirected a header past UD goalie Sean Ellis for a score in the 62nd minute. 

Dayton controlled possession over the closing minutes of the contest, moving the ball fluidly throughout the attacking third and building chances against Morefield. Morefield stonewalled attempts from Feiner, Adedokun and Forster Ajago in succession in the closing minutes before Ajago finally got free for a finish in the 87th minute. Seth Antwi slid a centering pass to Ajago in close for an easy finish to cap the day's scoring. 

Both McCallion and Morefield yielded a pair of scores and combined to make nine stops on Tuesday. Barnett utilized 22 different players in the preseason opener while Logan Finnegan paced the group with 72 minutes. Finnegan and Shives had a team-high two shots apiece for the Jaguars. 

"I'm incredibly optimistic about what this group has to offer and especially after just nine days of practice thus far," Barnett said. "They continue to come out, work hard and collectively improve one another."

IUPUI will cap the preseason on Saturday night (Aug. 21) when the Jags trek to SIUE for an 8:00 p.m. Eastern kickoff.