Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's soccer team persevered after going down early and losing two leads on Wednesday. Instead of dropping their heads, the Penguins pressured Holy Names University and came away with their first Pacific West Conference victory of the season, a 3-2 match that wasn't decided until the 86th minute.

The game-winner came from the foot of transfer Vini Enriquez, who notched his first career goal. Kolby Mitnick, who had a go-ahead goal of his own earlier, passed to a wide-open Enriquez, who was able to take the shot from point-blank range in front of the goal.

The Penguins led 3-2 on the Mitnick goal assisted by Jordan Rode, that is until Jamie Phillips's second goal of the day, on a penalty kick, tied the match at 69:57.

A penalty kick is also how the Penguins initially tied the match, just a minute after the Hawks (1-6-0/0-2-0) took the lead 15 minutes in. Swap Mushiana was prevented from a scoring opportunity when he was grabbed in the box by HNU keeper Phillip Poser and Mushiana made him pay with his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

David Mendez added his fourth goal of the season in the 33rd minute. He stole the ball from the goalie, then dribbled at the empty net for the easy goal. That gave the Penguins (3-5-2/0-2-1) a 2-1 lead, which lasted for 13 minutes until Philips scored his first goal of the day off of a corner kick from the right side.

"One thing we've talked about is that we've given a lot but we stepped up today. We gave more when we went down and gave even more to finish the game," said Head Coach Phil Billeci-Gard. "Credit to Holy Names but I'm proud of our kids."

The Penguins play a physical brand of soccer, and it was no different against Holy Names, as the two teams combined for 27 fouls and nine cautions. However, Sam Vella is the latest casualty of that aggressive style, as the senior co-captain will have to sit against Academy of Art after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season on Wednesdady. The Penguins were forced to play without most of their back line in the team's 3-1 loss to the Urban Knights in Monday's non-conference tilt.

Still, Billeci-Gard believes that Wednesday's victory will go a long way in turning his team's fortunes.

"Every day is a new challenge. It's nice that we've played Academy," said Billeci-Gard. "We'll have our homefield advantage and some guys who were out for that game hopefully give us a boost when we play them here on Sunday. Hopefully the game goes our way and that catapults us into Hawaii."

The Penguins host Academy of Art University on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 3:30 p.m. as part of a PacWest doubleheader with the women, who play at 1:00 p.m. Both games on Kennelly Field at the John F. Allen Athletics complex will be covered at www.dominicanathletics.com/live.