DAYTON (OH) — It’s hard to suppress the excitement about the 7-0-0 start to the UD men’s soccer season, perhaps the best beginning to any season in the modern era of Flyer footie. A successful spring with encouraging results filtered into the 2013 preseason, and Head Coach Dennis Currier’s squad hasn’t let up ever since.

One of just two remaining programs unbeaten and untied in Division-I (Maryland-Baltimore County is the other), UD has ‘taken care of business’ thus far in the non-conference schedule, doing so with a high-scoring offense (Top-5 nationally) and some old-fashioned perseverance. To the casual fan, things might seem picture-perfect, but Dayton’s perfect record is in spite of less-than-perfect circumstances. A rash of significant injuries has, at times, relegated six players in the typical starting XI to the bench, forcing others off the pine to fill in the gaps.

While Currier has never gone deep on his bench under normal conditions, he’s always stockpiled enough players with starter potential, along with a bevy of redshirt players seasoned from a year of training. He’s called upon a lot of them in 2013 with the ‘next man in’ rally cry, and for the most part things have worked out favorably.

So what do we know after seven matches? Here’s 10 things to consider:

1. The best player at his position remains sophomore GK Chris Froschauer, the strongest link in a young but otherwise talented defensive unit. We’ve sung the praises of Froschauer since he made his first start as a true freshman and nothing we’ve seen this year suggests he’s taken a step back. In fact, of all of the goals we’ve seen Dayton concede in person, Froschauer had no chance on all of them. You need great goalkeeping in the conference tournament — especially when matches end up in penalty kick shootouts. The Flyers have a clear advantage here.

2. Dayton’s freshman class hasn’t been asked to do a lot just yet. First-year striker Brian Richards tallied 4 goals in less than a game and a half at the start of the season, but suffered a serious injury and may be out indefinitely. Frosh Rafael Gamboa has chipped in with two goals and one assist, but the heavy lifting continues to get done by the veterans — which should come as no surprise considering the seasoned players that returned from 2012. And by veterans we mean past starters that include a lot of sophomores.

3. Dayton threw fans a slight curve ball by moving 6’6″ Maik Schoonderwoerd from the back line to the offense. The move makes a lot of sense however as long as the remaining back line players hold their ground. The sophomore sasquatch has imposing size and reminds fans of Omar Jarun — the former Flyer and international professional. But he’s also strong in the air like Florian DeCamps. As a target forward, they don’t get much bigger, and it’s paid off so far with two goals and two assists.

4. The Flyer midfield is still a work-in-progress. It’s been that way for the better part of four seasons, or at least since Hermann Trophy candidate Alex Torda made it his own personal playground. But even Torda was more of a scoring mid rather than a possession player, and UD continues to search for the dynamic conference difference-maker that strikes fear into opponents and spends time as a ball-winner and setup artist. The Flyers have plenty of scorers; what they need is an enforcer in the middle. Sophomore transfer Amass Amankona has gotten the nod, but at 5’8″, is undersized and still adjusting to the physicality of the college game. Dayton misses a guy like Terry Alvino — one of Currier’s first Flyer recruits brought along from Incarnate Word.

5. Set pieces are like special teams in soccer: many programs practice them but few excel at it. The Flyers are one of the better teams in the country on free kicks for two important reasons: Abe Keller takes most of the kicks and UD’s roster is full of players 6’2″ and taller to flood the box with tall timber. Keller is a threat to score on any free kick inside 30yds with low-driven, swerving, dipping balls to either post. His target balls are just as purposeful and well-placed and if UD wins the aerial battle near the six-yard box, good things usually happen.

6. Scoring in the run of play is still a work-in-progress, predicated on a few points we’ve already made — a dominant presence/work-ethic in the midfield and better movement off the ball. At times, the Flyers get caught standing around or in happy-feet mode with a case of the tap-dancing ball touches. More one- and two-touch passing will open up the field and get players behind the opposition with a numbers advantage. From there, UD has the size and speed to finish the play. They just need to ‘get on with it’ and play soccer rather than over-think things.

7. The back line has been pretty solid, and they should be considering the entire unit returned in-tact from 2012. Christopher Lenning, John Howe, and Jonathan Nelson have tons of match play under their belt now. RS Frosh Andrew Lightner is getting better every day. More than anything, the foursome bring quality size to the back line — ranging from 6’1″ to 6’3″. All have good speed to rescue a broken play, but at times the broken plays are more prevalent against the stronger opposition as shape of the back line deteriorates. We haven’t seen a lot of that yet because the schedule has been soft.

8. The non-conference schedule, much talked about here and elsewhere, was inadequate at best and unbecoming at worst for a program that identifies itself as a perennial NCAA at-large contender. Thus far, things have played out according to plan as Dayton has seven victories against seven inferior teams. With a SOS currently ranked #180 out of 204 teams, most pundits see the Flyers’ hot start and place a giant asterisk beside it. While other teams aren’t unbeaten, they’ve been tested far better and have a healthier appreciation for how good or not-so-good they are. We’re not sure how good Dayton is and probably won’t know until a pivotal A10 road match at nationally-ranked St. Louis in a little over three weeks. It’s a match the Flyers might need to win regardless of the record padding.

Dayton HAS shown an ability to take care of business however against lesser foes, and that’s all the players can be asked to do. They don’t make the schedule, they just play the games. To their credit, they’ve avoided the boat-anchor loss on a bad night at the office; even Top-40 teams puke up a “gimme” on occasion.

9. National rankings. What’s the 7-0-0 start mean for earning some important street cred? Beating Ohio State in Columbus was a healthy result, though the Bucks are clearly not in championship-caliber form like a few years ago. The other victories are more or less static noise to the rest of the college soccer community, and nothing changes over the next five matches against Loyola-Chicago, Valparaiso, Incarnate Word, George Washington, and Fordham. All five games are at Baujan Field and the Flyers have no business losing to any of those foes. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Should it play out correctly, Dayton would sport a 12-0-0 record heading into the match against the Billikens. Only after digesting the result of that match do we think the Flyers have an honest claim to a national ranking.

10. NCAA at-large potential hinges upon two things: virtually running the table, or beating St. Louis and providing some cushion for a slip-up somewhere else. We still think UD cannot afford to lose more than two matches in the regular season — and even that might be one too many. But a victory at St. Louis would probably afford an extra mulligan somewhere else on the schedule. In other words, beating SLU is more important than running the table in the A10. The NCAA selection committee will be hard-pressed to find another signature victory beyond that golden opportunity.

The silver lining is UD hosts the A10 postseason tournament at Baujan Field, so if the Flyers need to punch their ticket the old-fashioned way, they’ve got some home cooking to help make it happen. If the Flyers make it to the tourney finals and lose, we think three losses keeps the Flyers out of the Big Dance — unless UD beats St. Louis. Without an SLU victory, we think two losses is the cut-off.

As long as UD continues to focus their efforts 90 minutes at a time, the wins will keep piling up. While the schedule is ridiculously soft, this is not a mediocre team winning against lousy opposition. Rather, its a good team beating up on cupcakes. Whether this team goes from good to great remains to be seen. It’s hard to do that against a schedule such as this, but if players get healthy and a few other things come together, there’s no opponent on the schedule too tough to handle. Dayton’s size alone matches up physically to the best teams in the country. If the work-rate and 50/50 challenges prove to be top shelf as well, all the pieces are there to get it done.