Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Freshman Kolby Mitnick scored two goals, including the game-winner in the first overtime, as the Dominican University of California men's soccer team prevailed 3-2 over Hawai'i-Hilo in an emotionally-charged game on Wednesday.

Mitnick tallied the game-winning goal off an assist by teammate David Mendez after the Penguins (3-12-1, 2-7-1) played the final 4:34 of regulation time and overtime with a man advantage. The visiting Vulcans (2-11-2, 1-8-1) received three red cards in that span, two resulting from a pushing-and-shoving incident on the field.

“I wasn't too interested in that. I just wanted to keep playing,” Mitnick said of the wrangling that preceded his sudden-death goal at the 93:32 mark of the Pacific West Conference game. “It was definitely easier for us to keep the ball. They didn't really do anything in overtime.”

With 3:52 left in regulation time, Penguins freshman defender Cory Vanderpool was knocked to the ground. A fracas suddenly erupted in the southwest corner of the field, nearest the Hilo bench. Hilo coaches and players left their bench and ran to either participate in the incident or attempt to break it up. The Dominican coaching staff ordered all its players who were on the bench to remain there.

“It's unfortunate that we got one red card out of that, but I was very proud of us as a group for not [leaving the bench]. That could have turned into an ugly situation,” said Dominican Director of Soccer Jon Delano.

One Penguins player, Evan Myers, who was on the field, was flashed a red card and ejected. Two Hilo players – Landon Salvador, who was on the field, and, Ian Watanabe, who left the bench – were given red cards and ejected.

“This is disrespectful to Hawai'i,” said Vulcans coach Bryan Green, scolding his team when order was restored. Green then apologized to Delano for his team's actions and, after the game, congratulated and apologized to each Dominican player.

The Penguins appeared to have the game in hand with under 10 minutes to play when freshman Victor Robles scored his first goal of the year from an odd angle. After taking a Nuri Bon-Acosta pass, Robles turned on the baseline and fired a shot at the Hilo goal. It somehow slipped between Vulcans' goalkeeper Luis Romero and the near post and rolled across the goal line to land inside the far post.

However, Hilo scored twice in a four-minute span to pull even with Dominican and raise the intensity level on the field.

“From a learning perspective, it's good in the sense we've got to learn to lock down leads like that,” said Delano. “Mainly we've been learning how to stay in games and chase games whereas this one we were really trying to lock it down.

“We need to be mentally stronger in those situations. It's a problem we can fix.”

The Penguins scored the only goal of the first half. Mendez played a ball from the far side of midfield to Mitnick, who made a run down the right side, drew Romero out of the goal then drilled a shot that snuck inside the far post. It was Mitnick's third goal of the year. His fourth was far more important.

Dominican finishes its road schedule on Friday when it travels to San Francisco to play PacWest rival Academy at Boxer Stadium in a 1:30 p.m. contest.