Playing well wasn’t enough this weekend as the Falcons were beaten by the Dayton Flyers 4-3 before earning a draw at home against IPFW.

The weekend began with the Falcons finally finding their offensive form as senior Cameron Hepple tallied a hat trick against the Atlantic 10 Conference champion Flyers.

Hepple’s hat trick was the first by a Falcon player in five seasons.

‘Cameron was fantastic,’ said coach Eric Nichols. ‘He has been on fire.’

After converting from the penalty spot, Hepple’s second goal came in the run of play as Max Weston did well to find the Bahamian national for a goal. The play was further proof that Weston and Hepple are forming quite a partnership on the Falcons front line.

The Falcons hosted IPFW yesterday, in the team’s first home match in nearly three weeks. With a host of young players performing well, the Falcons enjoyed a surplus of possession in the first half.

The breakthrough finally came for the Falcons as forward Byard Ebling and true freshman right back Chris McLean combined well down the right side leaving space for an Ebling cross, which found Chuko Evwaraye at the back post for the game’s first goal.

‘I can’t say I had too much to do with the goal,’ Evwaraye said. ‘The ball came to Cameron, and he just got a touch on it, then it bounced off me and went in.’

The Falcons were able to continue to exert their influence on the game, only allowing the Mastodons chances on the counter-attack.

But they conceded a goal as center back Tanner Fink failed to clear a ball, eventually falling an IPFW striker who slotted the equalizer home comfortably.

‘Today was disappointing,’ Nichols said. ‘I thought we were the better team. I thought we had chances in the first half to put them away, but we didn’t. We let up and kept them in the game too long.’

Fink and his defensive partners made amends after conceding, breaking up any threatening advances by the Mastodons.

As the game progressed, the Falcons once again had the better of the ball, which led to chances for Ebling and Thomas McLean to regain the lead.

Finishing the initial 90 minutes of play, the game headed into overtime, the Falcons’ second such contest in the last three.

Nichols and his staff cannot be blamed for playing defensively in the overtime period, as they moved Jacob Lawrence from central defense to midfield.

‘We absolutely went for the win,’ Nichols said. ‘We were playing to win the whole time; we took some injuries which was bad. So we had to make some changes to the front, which allowed Jacob to move up.’

The overtime period was a wide open encounter, with chances at both ends of the pitch. The Falcons came up on the losing end and the Mastodons had a goal called back due to being offside.

The draw leaves the Falcons with a 1-4-2 record, without any wins in their last six. The opposition does not get any easier next week as the Falcons travel to Michigan on Wednesday before going to Akron, to face off against the Zips, the nation’s No. 1 team.