WAIPAHU, Hawai'i – Dominican men's soccer used a man advantage in the final four minutes of the game to break a scoreless tie and pick up the 1-0 win over Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday night at Waipio Peninsula Stadium.
The Penguins dominated statistically holding the 13-5 advantage in shots with a 10-1 advantage of shots on goal.
Jesus Duran picked up his first career goal while
Diego Grande recorded his second assist of the season. Jeremy Zielinski was fantastic throughout for the Sharks making nine saves on the night.
Time was quickly ticking down for Dominican in a game it had dominated statistically, but HPU appear poised to earn a point when Diego Saavedra was shown a red card and sent off with 3:57 left on the clock. The Penguins quickly seized on the man advantage pressing for a goal but the Sharks dropped back trying to hold on. Zielinski twice took his time after covering a ball to take precious seconds off the clock but it would not be enough as Grande stopped a ball at the end line and crossed a ball to Duran inside the six-yard box where he buried the shot on his first touch for the 1-0 lead.
HPU tried to quickly change strategy to equalize once again drawing a foul and pushing everyone but the keeper forward but
Alejandro Reyes secured the ball and found an outlet. Dominican was able to play the ball back into the Sharks half for a throw to burn off the final seconds of the match to earn its second victory of the road trip.
Dominican maintained possession deep in its attacking third for much of the opening minutes as
Dominic Galletti,
Brian Diaz and
Aboubacar Cisse all had shots on frame within the first 10 minutes, but Zielinski was in the right spot to make saves all three times and keep a clean sheet. The Penguins midfield and defense prevented HPU from getting a shot until the 27th minute when Leandro Weingartner saw his attempt sail high of the crossbar with two more shots coming in the next two minutes for the Sharks. That would be all they would manage in the half as the teams went into the break tied 0-0.
Dominican concludes its road trip Saturday at Chaminade with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. HST at Saint Louis Field.
