Tournament Central Page

The University of Dayton men's soccer team will travel to Birmingham, Alabama this weekend for the UAB "Soccer for a Cure" Classic. The Flyers open up with Jacksonville at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday evening before taking on host UAB Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.  All games will be played at West Campus Field in Birmingham.

Dayton enters the contest with a 1-2 record overall after hosting the Flyer Classic this past weekend at Baujan Field. In that tournament, the Flyers dropped a 2-1 decision to High Point on Friday before blanking Detroit in a 3-0 victory on Sunday.

On the season, Dayton is averaging 1.33 goals per game while giving up the same average to opponents. The Flyers have a .471 shots-on-goal percentage. Sophomore Brian Richards is the team's leading scorer with two goals while sophomores James Haupt and Rafael Gamboa both have one each. There have been 21 different Flyers see action on the field this season.

THE SERIES
This will be the first meeting between Dayton and Jacksonville, despite the two teams being in the same conference for football, the Pioneer Football League. It will also be the first time in school history that the Flyers take on the UAB Blazers.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
JACKSONVILLE
The Dolphins enter the weekend with an overall record of 1-2. Jacksonville is coached by Mauricio Ruiz, who is in his first season with the Dolphins. Ruiz was previously an associate head coach at UCF. The Dolphins have started the season behind a balanced attack, with four players tallying a goal. Rijad Kobijar leads the team with two assists.

UAB
The Blazers will face Vermont on Friday night before finishing off the tournament with Dayton on Sunday afternoon. UAB enters the weekend at 2-2 overall with wins over Memphis and Mercer. The Blazers are coached by Mike Getman who is in his 23rd season at the helm. Getman's teams have won six Conference USA regular season and tournament championships, and they have appeared in the NCAA Tournament seven times. UAB is led in scoring by Alex Clay and Ian Svantesson with two goals each.

LAST OUTING
Dayton was victorious over Detroit on Sunday, 3-0. Sophomore Brian Richards provided a pair of goals while sophomore James Haupt scored the other. Haupt, Rafael Gamboa, Amass Amankona, and Lalas Abubakar each picked up an assist. The shutout was the first for goalkeeper Chris Froschauer on the year.

Jacksonville is coming off a 2-0 loss to Atlantic 10 Conference newcomer Davidson on the road. The Dolphins were shutout by the Wildcats after recording just two shots on goal. Meny had six saves in the contest.

UAB last competed in the Holiday Inn Hurricane Classic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they dropped both games to Cal State Northridge and Virginia. The Blazers scored the opening goal, thanks to Alex Clay, but gave up two second half goals to Virginia, suffering the loss. Dajani provided the assist while Kuzminsky picked up six saves.

FLYER SUCCESS
The Dayton men's program has an overall record of 452-387-71 and three NCAA tournament appearances in its history. The Flyers are also 112-77-19 in the Atlantic 10 Conference and have six conference titles between the regular season and league tournament.

AMANKONA, RICHARDS NAMED ALL-TOURNEY
The Dayton Flyer Classic wrapped up on Sept. 7 with a pair of Flyers being named to the All-Tournament team. Dayton's Brian Richards and Amass Amankona were both honored for their performances in games against High Point and Detroit.

DAYTON PICKED 4TH IN A-10
The Atlantic 10 Conference released their preseason poll and tabbed the Flyers to finish fourth in the league behind  2013 regular season champions Saint Louis, 2013 tournament champions George Mason, and NCAA Tournament participant VCU. Dayton was picked ahead of A-10 newcomers Davidson, Duquesne, and La Salle, who eliminated the Flyers from the A-10 tournament last season.

A-10 PRESEASON HONORS
Before the 2014 season, Amankona was named the Atlantic 10 All-Conference Preseason team while freshmen Dillon Nino and Lance Gaspar were named to the All-Rookie Preseason team.

PRESEASON CSM AWARDS
College Sports Madness also released their preseason All-A-10 teams and recognized a couple of Flyers ahead of 2014. Freshman Nick Hagenkord was picked as the Freshman of the Year, coming off his Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year finalist honor. Enstone was named First Team All-Conference and Froschauer was named Second Team All-Conference as well.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
The Dayton program has been known to recruit well outside of the U.S. and this year's team is no different. The Flyers have two student athletes from England, three from Ghana, one from Costa Rica, one from Jamaica, one from Canada, and one from the Netherlands, totaling nine international players. This is coming off the 2013 season in which the Flyers had 11 players from overseas.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Dayton's squad is young as far as age is concerned  with 15 freshmen making up the team. The Flyers do have faith in this class though as it is made up of an NSCAA All-American, eight US Soccer Academy participants, and a U16 USSDA National Champion. Two other players are also four-star rated recruits. The Dayton coaching staff will not be shy in letting these freshmen get on the field.

LARA RECOGNIZED AS TOP ASSISTANT
Dayton Assistant Coach Kiki Lara was honored last season as the Mid-Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Lara is in his sixth year with the program and joined the Flyers after playing for Coach Currier at Incarnate Word.

CURRIER'S IMPACT
The head coach of the Flyers has had success at every place he has coached. Dennis Currier is in his 10th year at Dayton and holds a career record of 282-106-36 in 21 seasons and a 94-57-24 record with the Flyers. His career winning percentage of .710 ranks fifth in the nation amongst active coaches, ahead of programs like Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, and Virginia.

UP NEXT
The Flyers will continue their road stretch of games with a contest at IUPUI on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. Dayton then quickly turns around and heads to No. 10 Maryland on Monday, Sept. 22.