DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Dayton men's soccer team will travel to Oakland Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. contest. The Flyers and Grizzlies will meet for the third time in the past two seasons at Oakland Soccer Field.
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
Dayton heads into the weekend with a 2-4-1 record overall and 0-2-1 road mark. Head coach
Dennis Currier is in his 12th season at the helm and is looking to end a three-game winless streak for the Flyers.
The Flyers are averaging 1.00 goals per game while allowing 1.71 goals to opposing teams. UD is out-shooting opponents 15.3 to 12.1 and has a corner kick advantage of 48 to 31. Dayton has given up three penalty kicks this season, all converted, and has yet to draw one.
UD is led by
Rok Taneski, who has two goals and three assists, and
Nick Hagenkord, who has two goals and four points. The Flyers have used three different goalkeepers this season in senior
Justin Saliba (5 starts, 19 saves), junior
Oliver Hansen (1 start, 4 saves), and freshman
Federico Barrios (0.82 GAA, 1 start).
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
OAKLAND
Oakland is hosting the Flyers on Saturday in its fourth home game of the season. The Golden Grizzlies are 3-4 this year with a 2-1 home mark. OU is undefeated in conference play with a 3-0 Horizon League record, having the non-conference break with Dayton this weekend.
As a team, the Grizzlies are scoring at a 1.29 goals per game clip while giving up 1.57 to opponents. OU is being out-shot by opposing squads and allowing a better shots-on-goal percentage. Head coach Eric Pogue is in his eighth season in charge.
Four different Grizzlies have scored twice this season while Austin Ricci and Nebosja Popovic have chipped in two assists apiece to go with their pairs of goals. Goalkeepers Zach Walker (4 starts, 22 saves) and Liam McQueenie (3 starts, 0.67 GAA) have split time in goal this year.
THE SERIES
Dayton and Oakland are meeting for the 18th time with the Flyers holding a 3-9-5 record against the Grizzlies. UD and OU met twice in 2015 with the Grizzlies taking the regular season contest 2-0 at Dayton. The second showdown came in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with the Flyers advancing 4-3 on PK's after a 2-2 double overtime draw.
LAST OUTING
Dayton went on the road to Bowling Green on Tuesday and left with a 1-1 double overtime draw to the Falcons. Taneski scored the lone goal for the Flyers while Barrios made his first career start.
Oakland defeated Detroit on Wednesday, 2-1 on the road. After trailing the Titans 1-0 in the first half, the Grizzlies went on to score two goals in the second half to pick up the away victory. Nebosja Popovic and Nyal Higgins contributed the goals for OU.
OFFENSIVE POWERHOUSE
The Flyers led all of Division I last season with 58 goals in 23 games, good enough for a 2.52 goals per game average. The next closest team to Dayton was Akron with 2.33 goals each contest.
A-10 EXPECTATIONS
The Atlantic 10 Conference released its preseason men's soccer poll and tabbed Dayton to finish second in the league this season. The Flyers tied A-10 favorites Saint Louis with five first-place votes, but was edged out in total points 153-150. UD finished the regular season in second last season, but won the tourney title.
ALREADY ALL-CONFERENCE
Along with the Atlantic 10 preseason rankings, the All-Conference and All-Rookie teams were announced with a trio of Flyers recognized. Senior defender
Lalas Abubakar was named Preseason All-Conference while newcomers
Daniel Dos Santos and
Bennett Lehner were named to the All-Rookie Team.
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 student-athletes from Ghana, Costa Rica, Denmark, Spain, Nigeria, Switzerland, Slovenia, England, and Colombia totaling 10 international players. This is coming off the 2015 season in which the Flyers had nine international players.
CURRIER'S IMPACT
The head coach of the Flyers has had success at every place he has coached.
Dennis Currier is in his 12th year at Dayton and holds a career record of 303-118-46 in 23 seasons and a 115-69-34 record with the Flyers. His career winning percentage of .700 ranks fifth in the nation amongst active coaches, ahead of programs like Notre Dame, Louisville, UCLA, Xavier, and Virginia.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will remain on the road to take on Liberty Tuesday at 6 p.m. followed by UMass Saturday at 1 p.m.
