On a cool, breezy, albeit sunny afternoon at Baujan Field, the Dayton Flyers earned a victory over the tough-minded Richmond Spiders on Sunday, notching a 3-1 win to improve their record to 10-3 (4-1). The Spiders, who were swept on their Ohio road trip to Xavier and Dayton after starting league play at 3-0, fall to 6-4-2 (3-2).

The match was really two games in one as Richmond controlled the first 45 minutes and put the pressure on Dayton. The Spiders, who brought their customary vocal crowd of road supporters, gave Dayton fits in the middle of the field, winning nearly every loose ball and 50/50 header. Richmond won the battle in the air on their own kicks as well as Dayton’s, and the Flyers had an extremely tough time building a sustained attack like they prefer. Once Dayton earned possession, they played Richmond very well and put together several nice pieces over the course of the half. In between however, the Spiders kept dominating in the air and were given little resistance to pick on Flyer goalkicks and long balls from the back. To Dayton’s credit however, the Flyers were stubborn without the ball and Richmond’s hard work to gain possession earned them very little in the way of quality offensive scoring chances. But for a couple balls in the box, Flyer GK Steph Weisenfeld was never asked to make a big save, though she was kept busy and involved by playing balls from the back to the defenders looking to build forward.

Dayton took a major step forward in the match when junior Judi Aschenbrener volleyed a shot from 15 yards out in the 43rd minute, a shot she stoned from an extremely narrow angle on the left side that caught everyone by surprise including stunned Spider GK Megan Cox. Just like that, the Flyers had a 1-0 lead in a half they largely struggled to perform to their expectations. But like a switch on the wall, Dayton took the 1-0 halftime advantage and used it as momentum to completely dominate the remainder of the game. The first half ended with Dayton holding a 6-5 advantage in shots on goal while corner kicks were deadlocked at 2-2. Things wouldn’t be the same thereafter.

The second half was vintage Dayton soccer. Whether things were said by Coach Tucker at halftime or the players came to a consensus on their own, the Flyers put the hammer down and dominated. Richmond no longer had free reign on the 50/50 balls because of better hustle from the likes of Laura Boland, Katie Lowstuter, Judi Aschenbrener, and Tesia Kozlowski. UR struggled to put together anything remotely dangerous offensively for all but a couple minutes late in the game. When the Spiders flooded the UD box, UD swarmed in numbers and ganged up on opposing players to poke the ball away or steal it altogether. On the other end of the field, Dayton pushed more players forward and harassed the Richmond defenders to the tune of eight corner kicks (Richmond managed zero in the second half). Senior Shannon Kuhl put the Flyers on top 2-0 when she cracked a header off of a Liz Brown corner kick that left the UR goalkeeper wondering what happened.

Dayton kept the pressure on and cashed in once again in the 75th minute to go up 3-0 on a Reba Sedlacek goal. Sedlacek found herself left alone behind the Richmond defense directly in front of the goal mouth, yet still onside due to a snoozing Spider defender away from the play. Sedlacek took a pass from Lowstuter and beat the Spider goalkeeper one on one from 15 yards out.

Richmond got on the scoreboard just minutes later when Dayton was called for tripping in the box, a completely questionable call considering the tackle got ball and dispossessed the attacker — nevermind the fact that the tackle itself was anything but flagrant. Were the match a tie game, there’s no way the referee would have called it, but knowing a PK would do little to change the outcome of the match, he awarded Richmond the free strike from 12 yards out. Spider midfielder Molly Rettig put it away to trim the lead to 3-1 but that’s as close as they’d get. Dayton played out the remaining minutes of the game with relative ease and had a couple more chances of their own as the match came to a close to add to the lead.

Freshman Jacqueline Luehrs had an outstanding game at left back and brought considerable offensive punch down the sidelines on overlaps and dribbles into the free space. Several times she found herself down by the corner flag mixing it up with defenders from the other team. Aschenbrener found the net for the first time this year and should take a lot away from this game as well. Struggling to find her groove a bit, Aschenbrener is one of the best finishers on the team and finally hit paydirt after several good efforts in prior matches. Defender Leah Phelps continues to be a plowhorse at right back. On most nights fans can pencil in a stalemate on her side of the field and concentrate on a 10 vs. 10 match.

Offensively, Dayton picked up where they left off on Friday and put forth their second straight game with quality scoring chances on goal. If the Flyers continue to pepper the goal between the posts and keep opposing goalkeepers honest, Dayton shouldn’t have as much trouble scoring anymore. On Sunday, UD did a nice job of forcing the opposing team to make a play, rather than doing the dirty work for them by kicking a ball wide or high of the goal mouth. Even though Cox was credited with just three saves for Richmond, she was busy all afternoon and accounting for the three goals she allowed, six of Dayton’s 11 shots were on goal.

The Flyers hit the road next weekend for matches against LaSalle and Fordham. Both look like victories on paper. LaSalle took a 5-1 beating to Rhode Island on Sunday and Fordham — though Fordham has always given Dayton a tough time of things — remains a perennial cellar dweller. Look for the Flyers to keep the pedal down in an effort to catch Rhode Island in the league standings should URI stumble just once. A sweep next weekend puts the Flyers at 12-3 (6-1). If the Flyer offense continues to test opposing goalkeepers, that’s where fans will find the team when they return to Baujan Field in two weeks.