The Dominican University men's soccer team scored a 3-0 shutout victory over the MSOE Raiders on Wednesday afternoon at the Stars' West Campus Field.  Dominican senior Isaac Perez netted his first career hat trick in the winning effort, scoring all three of Dominican's goals while getting off six shots, four of which were on frame.
 
"Isaac is a plugged in scoring machine right now," commented Erick Baumann, the Stars' head men's soccer coach. "It was great to see him get his hat trick. We did a really nice job of sharing the ball in the final third today and were also positively selfish at the right times. We have a couple of other players that are on the verge of breaking out offensively as well."
 
After Vicente Castro got off a good look in just the second minute of play that was turned away by MSOE's Ron Marchionna, Perez opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he ripped a left-footed golazo that sailed over Marchionna and under the crossbar from 23 yards out.  The score proved to be the game-winner as Dominican's Daniel Dominguez collected one save while the Stars surrendered just five shots, only one of which was one frame.
 
Perez netted his second goal of the match in the 20^th minute of play when Garrett Boston's service from the right side found Jonathan Hernandez in the box. Hernandez headed the ball down to the feet of Castro who had his feet taken out from under him at the top of the penalty box.  Perez stepped up and buried the ensuing penalty shot.
 
Just 52 seconds into the second half, Hernandez helped create another dangerous opportunity for the Stars when the sophomore striker got in behind the Raiders' backline thanks to a beautiful ball played by Perez. Hernandez took a touch around Marchionna before he was taken down from behind by MSOE's Danny Bader.  Bader drew a red card as his foul stopped a Dominican scoring opportunity and the Stars awarded a penalty.  This time Perez could not convert, hitting the post as he slotted a shot on the ground.  Perez was eventually able to knock in the hat-trick goal in the 51^st minute when Castro played Perez from just inside of midfield. After two touches forward, Perez lifted a shot for the near post with Marchionna charging off his line.  The score is the team-leading tenth of the season for the Elgin native.
 
The wheels continued to fall off for the Raiders with Lucas D'Amato taking yellows in the 55^th and 59^th minute to put the visitors two players down.  MSOE collected two more yellows in the 59^th and 61^st minute as a total of five cautions were handed out in the match.
 
"I'm very proud of our team today," said Baumann. "We came to play and it showed from the first whistle. This is who we need to be in every single match. I'm also proud with how our players kept their composure when the game got chippy and ugly. It was great to the get the clean sheet again. When we play with focus like this, we can really lock it down."
 
Playing with the two-man advantage for the final 32 minutes of the match, Dominican dominated possession, keeping the Raiders chasing the ball and the scoreboard.  The Stars held a 17-5 advantage in shots, 12-1 over the game's final 45 minutes.  Dominican also earned five corners to the Raiders' one.
 
Dominican, now 9-2-2 on the year and 5-0-0 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), return to play on Saturday, hosting the Lakeland University Muskies for a 12:00 p.m. kickoff at West Campus Field.