The Dominican University men's soccer team got back on track in River Forest Saturday afternoon, topping the Marian University Sabres 3-1 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) action.
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"It was nice to get some quality minutes from some of the guys off the bench today," commented Dominican University head coach Erick Baumann. "They came in and made a nice impact on the game."
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The Stars got on the board early, scoring in just the second minute of play after
Gabriel Garcia (Midway, Ill.) and
Nestor Ascencio (Streamwood, Ill.) played a short-corner set piece into the box where
Eli Sherman (Columbia, Mo.) was able to get on the end of the service into the box and drive a header into the Sabres' goal for the early lead.
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Despite playing with the lead for the next 55 minutes and outshooting the Sabres 22-6 for the game, Marian was able to even the score in the 57
th minute when Danny Heerhold connected with Jeroham Duran who notched his fourth goal of the season.
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Dominican pulled back out in front in the 62
nd minute when
Ryan Ybarra (Des Plaines, Ill.) won a ball in the middle of the field and then played a ball to
Carmelo DiFranco (Addison, Ill.). After working towards the endline, DiFranco started to backtrack before laying a pass to
Carmelo Abate (Bartlett, Ill.) to lead him into the box. Abate cut one defender and was able to fire a shot with his left foot inside the far post.
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The final score came 14 minutes later when
Neftali Alejandre (Pilsen, Ill.) worked to gain the endline, shaking one defender before sending a cross through the six-yard box where
Francisco Nava (Carpentersville, Ill.) was able to knock in his first goal of the season.
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"It was nice to get a win but we need to work and continue to improve to get to a point where we can put together a solid 90 minutes and come away with a clean sheet," said Baumann.
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With the win, Dominican improve to 4-4-2 on the season and 2-1-0 in the NACC. The Stars will be on the road on Wednesday, heading to Aurora to face the Aurora University Spartans. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.