The Dayton Flyers received two goals from Sunday Isename and a bizarre own-goal by the opposition to help get past the St. Bonaventure Bonnies 4-2 Friday night at Baujan Field. Dayton improves to 7-6-1 (4-2) while SBU drops to 6-7 (2-4).

In a match that played relatively even for large stretches, the match turned into a battle of which side could make the most of their scoring chances. Dayton was up to the task and scored first in the 15th minute as Christian Porto placed a ball past SBU goalkeeper Tim Landry for the early lead. The tall and lanky Porto hadn’t scored a goal in a Flyer uniform until just a couple games ago, but is now looking like one of the go-to players on offense and is starting to find the net on a regular basis.

The lead however wouldn’t last long as SBU’s Said Ali got free from about 18yds out on the left side and unleashed a wicked side volley that cleared a charging Matt Hutchins from goal and found the back of the net for a 1-1 tie.

But the Bonnies quickly undid much of their hard work four minutes later when a scramble in the Bonnie penalty box forced a SBU player to clear the ball away, but in doing so, he rifled it into a fellow teammate and the ball deflected back toward the goal and into the top corner of the net with the precision of a Swiss watch that few players could match on a free kick.

With Dayton up 2-1, Baujan Field lost a bank of lights — one of six towers — in the corner of the terrace and the music building, and the referee momentarily stopped play to conference with the coaches. While a bit dim in the affected corner, all sides deemed it still playable and the contest resumed. Things ended 2-1 at the half.

Said Ali notched his second goal of the night in the second half as the Bonnies took advantage of a quick counter attack — a bugaboo this year for the Flyer defense — and tied things at 2-2. The Flyers needed to shake things up and pull away in this much-needed A-10 victory, and that’s exactly what happened in the last 30 minutes.

The Flyers and Bonnies each had good chances to score in the last half hour, but Dayton made the most of them and added two more goals to salt the game away. Sunday Isename chipped a ball over the SBU goalkeeper in the 66th minute off a feed from Joe Hall, and added another in the 73rd minute on an ssist from Christian Porto.

While Isename collected two goals and Porto added a goal and an assist, sophomore Jeff Suzuki was just as instrumental in the outcome and served up a bunch of great balls in the box and was a vital cog in at least two Flyer goals. Time and again he beat his defender on the flank and turned the corner for a quality serve in the mixer that Dayton crashed the goal on, making his efforts the best of the night and deserving of the UDPride Player of the Game.

Dayton is back in action Sunday afternoon against Duquesne. The Dukes seem to give the Flyers a good match whenever they hook up, so it should be a good one.