April 2, 2007

The days of the Dayton Flyer forwards receiving one or two goals early and having to make them hold up the rest of the way seem to have faded into the sunset. That change tends to happen when you have a team confident in their ability.

Take the Flyers two wins over the weekend, a 2-1 triumph over the Louisville Cardinals and a 3-2 victory over the Tiffin Dragons.

During the three-game span, six different Flyers scored seven goals. Considering UD averaged 1.3 goals per game during the fall season, the offensive outburst was a welcome sight for the Flyers.

In UD's win over Louisville on Friday, the Flyers scored two second half goals thanks to senior Gary Long providing the equalizer and freshman Alex Torda scoring the game-winning goal.

"Our team really outworked Louisville," head coach Dennis Currier said. "After we missed several chances early in the game, we found ourselves down 1-0 at halftime. I thought our team responded very well in the second half and we penetrated their defensive third several times and it finally paid off. It was a good start to our spring."

On Saturday, the Flyers started off the day with a 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Kings, a United States League Professional Team. Although UD received goals from freshman Jeff Popella and sophomore Joe Olwig, Dayton executed a unique offensive game plan.

"Offensively, we played very creative against the Kings," Currier said. "Unfortunately, we made three defensive mistakes that were very costly. The Kings are very experienced and they capitalized on all three mistakes."

However, all was not lost as Dayton rallied in the third game of the weekend to defeat Tiffin who went 11-6-1 overall last fall. Two goals scored by junior Tyler Imbrogno and one by freshman Ryan Handbury were the difference for Dayton.

"Our fitness is tremendous right now but playing three games in two days will wear any team down," said Currier. "Our attack continued to be strong against Tiffin and we had several chances to put the game away. To the credit of Tiffin though, they kept themselves in the match by scoring two goals at crucial times to keep the game within reach."

Dayton returns home for the Flyer Invitational on Saturday, April 7. All games will be held at Baujan Field.

UD will play the Ohio State Buckeyes at 12:15 p.m. ET and the Akron Zips at 4 p.m. ET.

"Overall it was a very strong weekend for our Flyers and we are very excited about getting back on the field for our upcoming tournament on April 7," said Currier.