The Dominican University men's soccer team opened the 2016 season on Thursday afternoon at West Campus Field, falling to the University of Chicago Maroons 4-0.  It was the sixth straight season the Stars and Maroons met in their respective season openers and Chicago's third straight win over Dominican despite the Stars' 6-5-2 advantage in the all-time series that began in 2002.
 
"That was a disappointing performance," commented head coach Erick Baumann following the Stars' loss. "We gave up six shots on goal and four of them found the back of the net.  When you make the type of mistakes we made today, good teams like Chicago will make you pay for them."
 
For the Maroons, Max Lopez tallied the eventual game-winner when he dispossessed the Stars' David Ortega near the top of the 18-yard box and then fired a shot that beat senior goalkeeper Gabriel Gongora in the 15th minute of play.  For the Maroons it was their first shot on goal and first goal.
 
Later in the first half, Dayo Adeosun and Josh Scofield worked a give-and-go with Scofield overlapping Adeosun to gain the endline before Scofield slid a pass along the top of the six-yard box where Christoffer Mathis slammed home his first goal of the season.
 
Trailing 2-0 into the second half, Dominican pressed forward looking to get back into the match and the Maroons took advantage.  In the 68^th minute, Lopez netted his second goal of the match when he got his head on Nicco Capotosto's corner kick service to beat Gongora.  Minutes later Adeosun got his first collegiate goal when he won a foot race with a Dominican defender to chase down Andre Abedian's long service from the left back and slid a low shot past Gongora to cap the day's scoring.
 
The Maroons held a 14-6 advantage in shots, putting six on goal to the Stars' three.  Dominican, who had been really good on restarts in three preseason matches, did manage ten corner kick opportunities but could not find the back of the goal.
 
"There were several times throughout the match where we generated opportunities but couldn't find that last play," said Baumann. "We also had ten corner kicks and didn't capitalize on any of them."
 
For the Stars, action resumes on September 7, when they travel to nearby Elmhurst to take on the Elmhurst College Bluejays.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Elmhurst's Langhorst Field.