DAYTON (OH) — After six consecutive shutout victories, the Dayton Flyers spotted St. Louis a pair of first half goals courtesy of defensive miscues. UD scored twice in the second half to force overtime however, and clinched their 7th victory in a row on a redirect by senior Sarah Senoyuit in extra time to win 3-2. The Flyers improve to 10-4-1 and remain perfect in the A10 at 5-0 — good enough for first place. The Billikens fall to 4-10-2.

The opening minutes of the match started off well for Mike Tucker’s squad as the Flyers knocked possession around with solid balls on the ground. Player movement off the ball was excellent as UD found space in the middle of the field to slot passes to teammates and move forward with pace. Consistent pressure in the offensive half of the field forced the Billikens to do some chasing. The run of play favoring the Flyers, UD took advantage and placed balls in the box in an attempt to score the first goal of the match.

UD had all of the quality chances in the first five minutes, but it was St. Louis turning the tables in the 7th minute with a counter-attack down the right side — their first legitimate offensive push of the game. The Flyers were loose on their marks and late to tighten up, allowing an unchecked cross to the near post that was flicked past GK Elizabeth James for the well-played far post goal for the 1-0 Billikens advantage.

With one shot on goal and one goal to show for it, St. Louis was certainly efficient. Over the next 20 minutes, Dayton once again dominated time of possession and had the better run of play. Pushing forward at every opportunity, the Flyers created chances and then one by one wasted them with poor finishing inside the SLU penalty box. One shot from five yards out hit the post, two others dribbled wide of the far post, and several others were not on frame at all. Despite the excellent soccer between the 18s, the Flyers were unable to crack SLU’s back line.

Things got more interesting in the 35th minute when the Billikens took their second quality scoring chance in their offensive half of the field and cashed in after beating a Flyer defender and pushing a ball to an open net for the shocking 2-0 lead. St. Louis would end up with just three shots in the entire first half, two of them in the net.

The Flyers continued to apply consistent pressure on offense, but the finishing never cut into the lead as intermission approached. Halftime stats were all Dayton with shots 12-3 and corner kicks 2-1.

UD had the offense to claw back into the match, but two things would have to change: the offense would have to finish and the defense would have to mark up far tighter.

Fortunately those two things happened. The Flyers once again had the better run of play as the second half commenced, using Juliana Libertin along the touch lines to stretch her defenders wide and open up space on the interior. Sophomore Nicole Waters used her physicality to push players around in the middle third, while senior Stephanie Emery continued where she left off in the first half by winning balls and pushing forward.

It took a few missed chances before the Flyers finally capitalized, but the deficit was cut to 2-1 in the 62nd minute when Waters played a ball in the box that Ashley Campbell toe-poked at the far post to give the Flyers some honest hope. The goal energized the entire squad and Dayton continued to apply the clamps offensively. Emery tied the match just three minutes later on a rifled shot from 18 yards that tucked inside the far post in the 65th minute. From there, it was game on.

Dayton never relinquished superiority in terms of tactics and overall skill level, but the Billikens stepped up their game after losing the lead and did a nice job of using their own physicality to win some important balls in the midfield. They caught the Flyer back line out of shape and chasing during several sequences. James was forced out of her box on one occasion to make a sliding stop that resulted in a deflection that was eventually cleared away.

On offense, Libertin continued to run up and down the right touch line in an attempt to soften up her mark. While she never shook loose, Libertin did enough to allow others to fill in behind her and put themselves in a dangerous scoring position.

St. Louis’ best scoring chances came on counter-attacks and a flurry of about seven minutes in the latter part of the second half where they forced the Flyers into a defensive bunker with short goalkicks that couldn’t clear the field. It took a few timely defensive stops to keep SLU from taking the lead and eventually UD would re-assert themselves.

Dayton hit the post a second time, and had a couple other chances directly in front of the SLU box to win the game in regulation, but finishing was problematic all evening and the match went into extra time. Dayton out-shot SLU 22-5 in the second half — though most of those shots were not on frame.

Defender Sarah Senoyuit finished off the improbable comeback just 14 seconds before the end of the first overtime on a redirect finish at the six yard line to give the Flyers the 3-2 win — their 7th in a row.

UD was fortunate to win. Odds of winning in the game of soccer after surrendering the first two goals are probably less than 10%, but the Flyers were clearly the better side on Friday evening and both SLU goals were as much poor defending on the part of the Flyers as strong finishing and execution by the Billikens.

That said, the Bills played much tougher than their record indicates and had some physical players in the midfield that gave the Flyers problems at times. Nicole Waters had no problem throwing her weight around however, and was a menace in the air during much of the second half. Likewise, Campbell generated excellent scoring chances but couldn’t finish most of her opportunities. In the back line, Megan Herr and Meghan Scharer were solid on the wings and did just enough to hold SLU’s strikers in check.

It wasn’t a textbook storyline the Flyer coaching staff would prefer, but Dayton showed some moxie after putting themselves in a very difficult position early in the match. While the six-game shutout streak comes to an end, UD won their 7th in a row — far more important as the A10 race heats up. Perhaps the defense needed a game like this to double-check themselves down the stretch. Offensively, UD generated 36 shots — but just 11 were on frame.

Dayton has the rest of the weekend off and will take on Fordham next weekend in the final home match of the season.