LA MIRADA, Calif. – Dominican men's soccer built a strong lead and held on for a 3-1 victory Wednesday afternoon over Biola at Al Barbour Field.
Diego Grande recorded his third multi-goal game of the season with a brace for the Penguins (7-5-3, 6-2-1 PacWest). Dominican controlled the pace of play for most of the game as the Eagles (5-7-4, 3-3-2 PacWest) had half the shots on goal as the Penguins with six for the game.
The Penguins pressed early in often maintaining long stretches of possession in its attacking third. The pressure paid off in the 30th minute when
Jesus Duran sent a ball towards the net that took a deflection off a defender and to the right foot of
Armando Jimenez who knocked it home. It was the first goal for Jimenez this season.
Biola's best opportunity of the first half came in the 37th minute as Robin Glockle sent a right-footed shot off the left post and it deflected back to Jeremy Larson whose attempt was blocked on the way through. The Eagles continued to control the pace of play over the final minutes of the first half and the opening minutes of the second half with
Alejandro Reyes making three saves during the 20-minute stretch.
Dominican began to find its offensive groove again as
Cole Porter moved to the right wing and promptly started a counterattack before sending a perfect cross past the face of goal to a sprinting
Diego Grande who slotted it home for the 2-0 lead in the 71st minute. The duo was not done as Porter took another ball down the goal line that took a deflection and he beat the keeper to the ball in the air knocking it over to Grande who headed it into the vacant net for the 3-0 lead in the 75th minute.
The Eagles were able to finally knock one in as a Brennan Furlan placed a corner into the center of the box and Tom Irion headed it to the lower-left corner to trim the lead to 3-1 in the 79th minute. Dominican continued to find opportunities to add to its lead down the stretch while limiting the Eagles to just a single shot in the final minutes of the match.
The Penguins will head next to Santa Barbara for its first match against new conference member Westmont on Saturday at 10 a.m. PDT at Thorrington Field.
