The Dayton Flyers returned home after two huge victories last week at A-10 favorite Richmond as well as GW. Friday night’s contest against Fordham University at Baujan Field was like shooting fish in a barrel for the Flyers, as the home team cruised to a 3-0 victory against one of the weakest teams on the 2001 schedule. Judi Aschenbrener paced Dayton with two goals as UD improves to 6-5 (4-0) and moves above .500 for the first time this year.

The Flyers put on two distinct performances Friday night. The first was a total dominance in the field where UD did everything they wanted to at any time they wanted. Dayton could have knocked the ball around all night and played keep-away without breaking much of a sweat, and did just that for most of the match as Fordham was a step slow everywhere and remains handicapped by the inherent weaknesses of a squad without a lot of talent. While the Flyers were that much better than the Rams however, Dayton’s game of shooting fish in a barrel took on a life of its own as UD missed a lot of fish, and, all too often, missed the barrel too. A 3-0 win could have and should have been 9-0 — and that’s writing off a few “gimmies” in the box to balance out the law of averages. What ended up was a great performance against a poor team marred by an inability to finish chances. Against the Rams it’s no big deal, but the coaches know they’ll be important in the big games.

First things first however. Dayton opened the game with guns blazing and after five minutes, UD had serious pressure on the goal and a flurry of scoring opportunities and uncontested shots that unfortunately weren’t on goal. Rinse and repeat.

That’s what happened for the next 30 minutes as well despite acres of free space and little resistance from the Fordham defense. Dayton kept getting good looks and pulled the trigger at will, but the Ram goalkeeper stood and watched most of them go way wide or way high. Dayton finally broke through in the latter stages of the first half as Aschenbrener struck gold in the 32nd minute, and, with a 1-0 lead after such domination, fans felt a bit easier going into halftime.

The second half saw Fordham overwhelmed yet again. Flyer players were cutting with the ball and swimming past Ram players or passing to the weak side where fellow teammates looked so isolated they were getting lonely. UD continued to knock the ball around and work a strong attack from the back very well. Like a knife through warm butter, Dayton had an easy time everywhere. While Fordham gave UD all day to work their game, Dayton was guilty at times of taking all day to make it happen. Perhaps knowing less than the best was good enough, a more assertive Flyer team in the open space could have dominated things that much better, but it was so lopsided as it was, things would have only mattered on the scoreboard.

Dayton tacked on two more goals in the second half (McKnight in the 58th minute, Aschenbrener in the 68th) to wrap things up and win 3-0. The Flyers looked sharp nearly everywhere except in the finishing department. Looking at the stats, Dayton took a whopping 36 shots, but just eight (1 in 4.5) were on goal, meaning the Flyers could have added another 6-8 goals had they taken just a bit more time on their shots. In all, Fordham’s goalkeeper had to make just four saves on 36 shots, and while a couple of them were excellent stops, she was anything but busy. Aschenbrener’s two-goal night earns her the UDPride Player of the Game, while fellow sophomore Beth McHugh finishes a close second after serving up a trayful of Frisch’s Big Boy Platters right in front of the box that teammates couldn’t put away.

Without question, the UD coaching staff has to be impressed with the overall performance. The Flyers played smart and performed at a textbook clip for much of the game. While Fordham entered the contest with a 5-4-1 record, their non-conference schedule was Cupcake City and their 0-4 start to the A-10 schedule is a good indication why they are strong candidates for the league cellar. The good news is Fordham lost just 2-1 to UMass and 1-0 in overtime to URI — hinting that the Flyers may be the team to beat right now in the A-10. The Rams managed just four shots Friday night as UD goalkeeper Steph Weisenfeld bumped her career shutout mark to 19.5, one shy of the school record. Dayton is working the ball well throughout the field and playing as a unit. More importantly, the players look confident and not only expect to win, but expect to dominate. Last week’s victories over Richmond and GW on the road has this team believing.

LaSalle is the opposition Sunday afternoon and a similar performance should be enough to overtake the Explorers, provided Dayton can take advantage of their chances and put it in the net. LaSalle currently sits in second place in the conference at 2-1 (4-6 overall) heading into Friday night’s contest with Xavier. They played league stalwart UMass to a 1-0 game and beat a strong Rhode Island club 3-0 within the last two weeks so nobody should expect pushovers. Unlike Fordham, LaSalle has 3-4 players who can be somewhat dangerous if given a long leash.