A pair of second half goals and a dominating performance from start to finish lifted visiting St. Louis to a 2-0 victory over the host Dayton Flyers Sunday afternoon at Baujan Field. With the loss, UD drops their first conference match of the year and falls to 6-4-3 (4-1-0) while SLU improves their record to 8-3-2 (3-2-0).

The start of the match proved to be Dayton’s best effort all day as both sides managed to control some possession and move the ball forward. For a while in fact, SLU looked very beatable even though they demonstrated a nice skill set from the very beginning. Once the game pushed past the 10 minute mark however, the run of play turned completely one-sided and that never changed over the course of the first half.

The Billikens used a strong work ethic and added to it by playing much more physical than the Flyers, who turned more and more passive as the match wore on. While Dayton looked like a team carrying refrigerators on their back, the Bills were lively and winning all of the loose balls between the 18yd lines. That put UD into a defensive posture for much of the half and as the game went on, they lost their composure too often by clearing balls with no purpose that found the feet of SLU players coming forward to pick them off and attack once more. That said, Dayton’s offensive players never helped out for the most part, making SLU’s job relatively easy.

St. Louis had plenty of chances in the first half to find the net, but with some suspect finishing skills and a little luck, Dayton managed to keep the game scoreless. Goalkeeper Stacy Chew had the crossbar to thank on SLU’s best opportunity, as a quality shot bounced off it to saved the Flyers’ bacon. More and more however, UD continued to fade until most of the action was in the Dayton defensive half of the field. Unable to generate any offense of their own, few options existed to take pressure off the back line to get players forward. Much of that responsibility fell on the mids and forwards to win loose balls and increase their work rate, but the 400 fans at Baujan Field saw players standing around with little interest in providing any resistance.

Dayton hung in long enough to reach halftime with a 0-0 score, but the run of play made the match feel like a 2-0 deficit. SLU outshot the Flyers 10-4 in the half but none of UD’s chances were dangerous.

With the second half to right the wrongs and pick up the intensity, the Flyers looked like a team folding the tent and heading back to the dorms. The Billikens repeatedly pushed Flyer players off the ball, outran them to loose balls on the ground, and owned most of the headers out of the air. At times the Flyer hustle and energy level was non-existent, a stark contrast to the first half of Friday evening’s match against Duquesne when they looked like a team on a mission. Unwilling to put up a fight, SLU ran roughshot as the second half continued, finally collecting reward for their hard work in the 65th minute on a strong finish at the left post by Dee Guempel after Lauren Bozesky beat a platoon of Flyer players in the right corner for a perfect cross to the far side.

St. Louis would add an insurance goal in the 76th minute when Guempel tallied her second score of the day by beating Chew to the low left corner from 15yds out after running unmarked in the center of the field.

The final 15 minutes of the match ended without Dayton challenging Bill’s goalkeeper Hannah Koesterer.

Match stats speak volumes as SLU outshot Dayton 23-7 including 10 shots on goal to just four for UD. The Flyers never seriously threatened all day and most of that was a result of players getting outmuscled and outhustled every time such an effort determined the hunter or the hunted. Sophomore Kim Sacher’s red card in the 83rd minute was a microcosm of the events that unfolded on Sunday as she lost her composure after getting out-worked for a ball near midfield. A swinging by the jersey among other things left UD with 10 players for the remaining six minutes of play.

On a day where UD’s A10 title fortunes might have taken a giant step forward, St. Louis mopped the field with the home team’s back side from start to finish. The lack of Flyer effort was all the more disappointing considering the Bills have given up four goals to Xavier and a pair to Fordham in recent conference losses. But the Flyers never threw any punches on Sunday, at least in the soccer sense.

Freshmen Caitlin Proffitt and Colleen Gibson have to be exceptions however because they fought hard and refused to mail it in. Both players went hard toward loose balls, pushed back as hard as they were pushed upon, and tried their best to set an example others could emulate — but little of it rubbed off. Fellow freshman Mandi Back had a rough day as she won nary a ball up top for an hour’s work. But she wasn’t alone and when a pair of freshmen are demonstrating the best work rate, that’s when the sophomores, juniors, and seniors need to start questioning how bad they hate to lose too.

Despite the loss, UD remains in relatively good shape in the A10 standings. Dayton controls their own destiny and should the Flyers run the table, they would finish no worse than a tie for first place for the season title. Much work remains on the table for that to happen, and a repeat performance of Sunday afternoon’s sleepwalk will make things all the more difficult.