SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's soccer team came away with a 2-1 victory over visiting Hawai'i Pacific University on Thursday afternoon to get into the win column.

"Great win by the guys. We've said all along that we're a much better team than our record indicates. Earlier on in the year, for some reason, somehow, we found a way to lose those ones," said Head Coach Phil Billeci-Gard. "Today, we were on the better half of it and we're finding a way to win. It's an effort from the first player to the last player on the bench. Everybody contributed today."

The Penguins, who were finally on the right side of a one-goal decision, went up early and never relented. Kolby Mitnick, who missed the last two matches with injury, put Dominican on the scoreboard first in the 32nd minute. Drake Albee came from the right side and sent a one-touch pass to Vini Enriquez, who found Mitnick open inside the 18-yard box. Mitnick dribbled past a defender and finished into the roof of the goal.

Three minutes later, Enriquez added an insurance goal. Chris Sennes sent a ball over the defense to Albee, who took a touch and sent the ball to Enriquez in the middle of the 18-yard box. Enriquez finished low into the bottom left of the goal.

The injury-riddled roster also got a boost from Dale Howard's first start of the year, as well as the return of senior defender Fabian Valdez-Mendoza to the starting lineup. Goalkeeper Patrick Rabbitt had six saves to record the victory.

The intensity rose when HPU's Christopher Galang cut the lead to 2-1 in the 85th minute. Dominican was able to survive the physical match, which saw 39 fouls and eight yellow cards, to come away with the one-goal win.

Dominican will host its Senior Day with a pregame ceremony honoring the team's seven seniors on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 12 p.m. That is the first of a men's-women's doubleheader. Live stats and video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live and audio will be provided by radio.dominican.edu.