The St. Bonaventure Bonnies ran into a guillotine Sunday afternoon as the Dayton Flyers took care of business in fine fashion with a 5-0 whipping before 506 vocal fans on senior day. Seniors Steph Weisenfeld, Lindsey Whitehead, Shannon Kuhl, Liz Brown, and Clare Quinter were honored before the match for their outstanding careers, making up the most successful Flyer class in program history. No other recruiting class has won as many games, titles, and NCAA tournament matches. Dayton improves to 15-2 (8-1) and remains in a first place tie with Rhode Island. The Flyers also clinched their seventh A-10 tournament birth in a row by virtue of Sunday’s victory. Assuming both the Flyers and Rams win out, URI will receive the #1 seed as a result of their 2-1 victory over Dayton earlier in the season.

The Bonnies, who were forced into a rescheduled match with Xavier on Saturday due to unplayable field conditions Friday night at XU’s Corcoran Field, looked every bit like a team playing two matches in two days. Dayton jumped on the Bonnies like a pack of crazed dogs and when everything was said and done, little was left but bone and gristle.

The entire first half was all Dayton and though SBU played on tired legs, the Flyers put together their best half of the season. Beautiful soccer took place on all parts of the field and UD accomplished anything and everything they wanted in the field of play. The defensive players were the key to everything, swinging balls to the open space, overlapping with runs up the sidelines, and finding midfielders and forwards asking for the ball. The Bonnies were chasing desperately but it got them nowhere. As soon as one Flyer got the ball, two or three others were wide open and it became a matter of choosing who had the best chance to create some offense. As in recent matches, Dayton did well by placing quality shots on goal that forced the Bonnies to make a defensive play. But SBU’s best defense turned out to be blind luck because Dayton nailed one shot off the crossbar and two off the side post just 20 minutes into the game. It was only a matter of time before the Flyers would cash in and the Bonnies knew it, but cashing in before halftime would certainly take some of the pressure off against a team not as capable as UD.

The Flyers eventually did cash in — twice — before intermission. Liz Brown, who scored Dayton’s first goal on Friday, did the same on Sunday by collecting a ball in the middle of the box and putting it away for the 1-0 advantage in the 39th minute. Senior Shannon Kuhl made it 2-0 in the 42nd minute by finishing a beautiful Beth McHugh cross from the right side. As the half ended, the stats spoke for themselves. UD had a 16-0 advantage in shots on goal along with a 4-0 edge in corner kicks. The Bonnies never came close to threatening the UD goal mouth and were lucky to be down just 2-0.

Dayton’s first half was so organized and well played that it would be a tough act to follow. While SBU did play harder and UD cleared the bench, the Flyers still dominated easily. Shannon Kuhl added her second goal of the match in the 67th minute on an incredible shot that tucked beneath the upper 90 of the far post that left Bonnie GK Breanne Kraly completely defenseless. Just two minutes later, sophomore Tesia Kozlowski ripped a shot from 25yds out that hugged the turf and found the low left corner for a 4-0 Dayton lead.

Defender Jen Simonetti would cap off the scoring in the 72nd minute with a near post run. Freshman Katie Lowstuter fed her a great ball and Simonetti headed it in from 5yds out despite being surrounded by four Bonnie players.

Head Coach Mike Tucker emptied the bench and everyone got a chance to play. In fact, the Flyer second team of Stacy Palumbo, Sarah Maxwell, Tracy Buehrle, Jessica Melvin, Gretchen Echelbarger, and others were equally successful in giving the Bonnies everything they could handle. No matter who took the field, the Flyer players ran the show, nevermind the fact that as the game ended most of the players on the field for Dayton were nonstarters or true freshmen. Sophomore GK Amanda Kuntz saw her first action of the season after Weisenfeld took a curtain call. All five seniors played well, as expected on senior day. Jen Simonetti had a huge game, perhaps her best aerial assault of the season as she won every header in her direction all game, so much so that it became pointless for the Bonnies to play it in her vicinity. Katie Lowtsuter, back after a one-game suspension for a red card, was back in action and performed well in the midfield. The defensive fearsome foursome of Phelps, Simonetti, Showalter, and Luehrs worked extremely well together and did as they pleased, while midfielder Beth McHugh was responsible for several quality crosses in the box, in part because she had no trouble flying past her mark on the right side.

UD finished the match with a 31-3 shot advantage and a 10-2 edge in corner kicks.

The Flyers finish up the regular season next weekend with road matches at Temple and St. Joseph’s. Both teams currently stand at or near the bottom of the A-10 and should pose little trouble the Dayton. The Flyers are winners of seven in a row and have not given up a goal in the field of play during that span — just two penalty kicks. Offensively, they’ve also scored three or more goals three times, hinting that the offense has found the magic potion and has figured out how to find the back of the net on a consistent basis. If the offense and defense remain hot, Dayton remains the clear favorite to win out and take the A-10 Tournament title despite an in-season loss to Rhode Island.