SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican men's soccer scored three unanswered goals over the final 36 minutes, including two in a span of 88 seconds late in the second half, to rally past CUI 3-1 Wednesday afternoon at Kennelly Field.
The Penguins improved to 3-4-4 overall and 2-1-1 in PacWest play, while CUI fell to 6-6-1 and 2-3 in conference. Dominican finished with a 16-15 edge in shots, put six attempts on goal and generated seven corner kicks compared with three for the Golden Eagles. The victory snapped CUI's two-match winning streak in the series and gave Dominican its first win over the Golden Eagles since a 5-3 victory in Irvine in 2023. It was the Penguins' first home win in the series since 2022.
Neither side could break through during the opening 45 minutes despite combining for 13 shots. Dominican's best opportunity of the opening half came in the 26th minute when
Patrick Zamora Salazar got his head to a ball in the box and drove it off the turf. The bounce sent the attempt high toward goal, forcing Leo Ripert to leap and keep it out of the net for his only save of the first half.
CUI broke the scoreless deadlock in the 53rd minute after a sustained barrage of offensive pressure. Bryan Maldonado put a shot on frame, the third shot for the Golden Eagles in less than a minute, that
Colin Nestor pushed away, but the rebound fell to Gianluca Guimaraes. Guimaraes followed the play and drove the loose ball into the upper-left corner for a 1-0 Golden Eagles lead. The Penguins countered right back as they earned consecutive corner kicks before
Adrian Garcia curled a left-footed in-swinger directly into the goal from the corner on his second attempt to level the game at 1-1 in the 55th minute, his third goal of the season.
The Penguins continued pushing for the go-ahead goal, forcing Ripert into another save when
Anthony Stainer put an attempt on frame in the 75th minute on a point blank chance. Dominican generated five of its seven corner kicks after halftime as the pressure continued to build. The breakthrough finally came with under 10 minutes remaining in the game.
Jake Kazlauskas collected the ball near the upper-left edge of the penalty area, drove a pair of defenders deeper into the box before pulling it back to open space and curling a shot across goal into the high back corner to give Dominican its first lead at 84:45. The goal was Kazlauskas' team-leading fifth of the season.
Sebastian Jaral put the match away just 88 seconds later.
Norman Tellez played a ball behind the CUI defense, and although a recovering defender managed to get a touch on it on an attempted tackle, Jaral maintained possession and finished across the goalkeeper to the back post for a 3-1 advantage.
Dominican remains home Friday to host Vanguard at 1:30 p.m. at Kennelly Field.
