Saint Louis picked up its biggest win of the year Saturday night, defeating No. 19 Dayton 3-1 in Atlantic 10 Conference men’s soccer action at Baujan Field.
Saint Louis (9-4-1, 5-1-1 A-10) is now in first place in the A-10 standings after Duquesne tied Fordham on Saturday. The Bills will go for their second-straight A-10 regular-season title next Saturday night when they host Saint Joseph’s at Hermann Stadium in a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Dayton, ranked No. 19 in this week’s United Soccer Coaches poll, suffered its first loss of the year and falls to 9-1-4 overall and 3-1-3 in the league. It was SLU’s second road win against a ranked opponent this season as it knocked off No. 7 Creighton in Omaha earlier this year.
Graduate transfer Alberto Suarez scored the Bills’ first two goals on Saturday night and sophomore Brogan Townsend added an insurance tally against the Flyers. Carlos Tofern made three saves for the win in goal.
Suarez’s two goals came seven minutes apart, one late in the first half and the other early in the second stanza. On the first goal, he headed a ball chipped into the box by Lane Warrington to give SLU an early 1-0 lead.
Suarez made it 2-0 Billikens just 46 seconds into the second half. A long throw-in by Warrington was headed by Max Floriani to Suarez, who buried it into the back of the net.
Later in the second half, CJ Coppola started a scoring play with run up the sideline. He sent a pass to Klein, who then found Townsend who scored to make it a 3-0 game.
The assist for Klein was the 26th of his career, which ties him with Carl Gentile for 11th on SLU’s all-time list.
The two tallies by Suarez give him five on the season, second on the Bills behind Klein’s six.
Saturday’s win against the Flyers also keeps the Billikens in the conversation as far as NCAA at-large bids are concerned. SLU entered the week at No. 26 in the official NCAA RPI. The road win over Dayton, ranked No. 43 entering the week in the RPI, should bump the Billikens up even further.
The Billiken seniors will be recognized prior to SLU’s final regular-season contest on Saturday against Saint Joseph’s. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Hermann Stadium. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.
