River Forest, Ill.- The Dominican University men's soccer team traveled to Aurora University for the NACC semifinal on Tuesday night.

Results:
AU: 2
DU: 2
(Dominican won 5-4 in penalty shoot-out)

How it Happened:
-Dominican had a terrific first-half especially defensively.
-DU only allowed 2 shots and neither was on target for Aurora in the first half.
-The Stars peppered Aurora's goalkeeping and in the 32nd minute, sophomore Brendan Gavin got Dominican on the board 1-0.
-DU went into halftime up 1-0.
-The Stars continued strong defensive play and added some insurance in the 71st minute when fifth-year Vicente Castro scored a goal to put DU up 2-0.
-Dominican conceded a penalty kick with just under four minutes remaining and the Spartans cashed in to make it 2-1.
-Aurora continued to fight and put an equalizer into the back of the goal in the 88th minute to send the match to overtime tied 2-2.
-The Spartans put a lot of pressure on DU throughout overtime as they outshot the Stars 13-0.
-Dominican held strong and forced a penalty shoot-out
-The Stars scored their first 3 attempts with strong finishes from Castro, junior Oscar Montejano, and Dylan Alic.
-Aurora would miss their second attempt and DU was up 3-2 after 3 turns.
-Dominican then missed their fourth attempt and Aurora made theirs.
-Sophomore Ryan Gutierrez got the Stars back on track and Aurora tied it up 4-4 with a make as well.
-Finally, junior Derrick Apholz was able to give Dominican a 5-4 lead and Aurora sailed their final attempt giving DU the lead and advancing them to the championship match.

Shining Stars:
-Gavin's first goal of the season could not have come in a bigger way as he gave DU a huge confidence boost with the first-half goal.
-Castro's experience came into play with a key insurance goal to get DU a 2-0 lead which they needed every bit of to force overtime.
-Marinkovich got a huge save coming in during the shoot-out and earned the victory for Dominican.

Leading the Way:
Goals: Gavin and Castro (1)
Shots: Cronnolly (6)
SOG: O. Montejano  (3)
Saves: Cerritos (6)
Minutes: 8 players (110)

What's Next:
Dominican University men's soccer will compete in the NACC championship match against the winner of tomorrow's match between St. Norbert and MSOE. The championship match will be Saturday.

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