The Dominican University men’s soccer team won its fifth straight Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon, topping the Aurora University Spartans 2-0 to secure the Stars’ ninth consecutive bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship.
Sophomore Ryan Roberts tallied his tenth goal of the season in the 13th minute of play, and the score proved to be the game-winner as Dominican’s Maxwell Gutbrod (Slinger, Wis.) posted his 13th shutout of the season after missing the conference semifinals on Tuesday.
Senior Mike Kapusta took advantage of one of the Stars’ 17 restart opportunities as he drove a ball into the box to Kyle Boekeloo (Woodridge, Ill.). Boekeloo, Tuesday's semifinal hero, settled and lifted a ball over a pack of Aurora defenders to Roberts who wasted no time putting Dominican ahead on just the second shot of the game.
Then in the 37th minute, sophomore defender Andy Lynch (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.) notched his third goal of the season as he ripped a knuckling shot past Aurora’s Kevin Soderstrom from 25-yards out.
The pair of first half scores was all the Dominican defense needed as the Stars posted their 16th shutout of the season in 20 games. Dominican, now boasts a 0.30 goals against average, surrendering fewer than six shots per game.
Dominican will find out when and where it will open national tournament play on Monday as the NCAA is scheduled to release the 2010 Division III Men’s Soccer Championship bracket at 1:00 p.m. CST on the NCAA.com website.
