Nov. 8, 2008
Box Score
River Forest, IL -
The Dominican University men's soccer team claimed their seventh straight trip to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer National Tournament as they topped Aurora 4-0 in the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Men's Soccer Tournament Championship game on Saturday afternoon, securing the NAC's automatic bid to the national tournament.
The two teams played to a scoreless tie through the first 48 minutes before freshman Edwin Lagunas (Waukegan, IL) gathered a ball inside the Spartans' six-yard box and beat the Aurora goalkeeper for his 11th goal of the season in the 49th minute of play.
Four minutes later, Lagunas received a ball from sophomore Michael Kapusta (Bartlett, IL) and dribbled up the left sideline before sliding the ball to senior Plamen Pamukov (Addison, IL) who beat the Spartan's goalkeeper to put the Stars ahead 2-0 with under 38 minutes to play.
In the 64th minute, Lagunas dribbled through the Spartan's defense and then tallied his second score of the game to put the Stars ahead 3-0. Then in the 82nd minute, Kapusta notched his 14th goal of the season as he ripped a shot into the Aurora wall on a restart and gathered the rebound and then blasted another shot that found its way into the back of the Spartans' goal.
Defensively, Dominican's Piotr Sliwa (Chicago, IL) picked up his 11th shutout of the season as the Stars' defense did not allow a single shot on goal.
The win was the Stars' fourth straight win and pushed the Stars are now unbeaten in their last 17 contests since starting the season 2-2-0 after back-to-back 1-0 losses to North Park University and Wheaton College. The Stars have now run their overall record to 18-2-1, going 11-0-0 in the NAC to claim the conference regular season championship.
The Stars will now sit and wait to hear when and where they will play in the 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships. The brackets are scheduled to be released by the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Committee on Monday, November 10, at www.ncaa.com.
