Box Score SAN FRANCISCO — What had been a challenging season for David Mendez suddenly got rewarding and fun on Friday.

The sophomore co-captain for the Dominican University of California men's soccer team scored two goals as the Penguins avenged a 6-4 home loss to Academy of Art on October 15 by shutting out the Urban Knights 2-0 in the rematch at Boxer Stadium in Balboa Park.

“Everybody contributed. We were out for revenge. They kind of embarrassed us last time,” said Mendez. “We wanted to come out strong this time.”

Mendez, frustrated by missed scoring opportunities this season and bothered by an injured left knee that sidelined him for one game, tallied his first goal of the Pacific West Conference game 37 seconds into the contest with a header off a Nuri Bon-Acosta corner kick. Mendez netted his second goal early in the second half off a brilliant free kick by Sam Vella from 45 yards that struck the crossbar and rebounded to Mendez in the goal mouth.

“You can't say enough good things about David today. His work rate. His goals,” said Dominican Director of Soccer Jon Delano. “He's a sophomore captain and we lean on him quite a bit for leadership and he's only a sophomore … The last few games he's been stellar. I think he's really starting to find the balance between everything.”

The Penguins (4-12-1/3-7-1) played without freshman center defender Evan Myers, who began serving a two-game red card suspension. So they changed their formation against the Urban Knights (5-11-0, 3-8-0) and it resulted with fabulous efforts from freshmen Cory Vanderpool and Fabian Valdez and junior Ryan Shilling in the back, along with freshman midfielder Dale Howard and Vella who, Delano said, “played his best game of the season. He was all over the place.”

Dominican was able to protect its early lead thanks in great part to Vanderpool, freshman goalkeeper Erik Anderson and the crossbar. Juan Zurita of AAU had one of his shots hit the crossbar but the Urban Knights appeared on the brink getting the equalizer a few minutes later when Frederik Nagel beat Anderson to a loose ball and took aim at the empty net.

Fortunately for the Penguins, Vanderpool sprinted back to the goal mouth and kicked Nagel's shot before it crossed the goal line then Anderson recovered to make a great save on Nagel's rebound attempt. Anderson had only four saves in the game as his defense kept the Urban Knights at distance.

The Penguins played AAU even the rest of the first half and had several scoring chances. Mendez and Rafael Garcia set up freshman Victor Robles in front of the net but Robles slipped going to the loose ball then freshman Kolby Mitnick almost came clear with dribbling in the box. In the last minute of the opening half, Mendez scored but was ruled offsides on the play. Mendez had four of his six shots in the first half, two on goal.

“I thought we were very good from the first second to the final minute,” said Delano. “We didn't have one played who played poorly.”

Dominican will play its season-ending game on Sunday, hosting Notre Dame de Namur University at Forest Meadows Field – the last PacWest game to be played there as the Penguins will move to the new John F. Allen Athletics Complex and Kennelly Field for the 2012 season.