SAN RAFAEL, Calif. –
Sebastian Jaral and
Christian Sotomayor each scored a brace Wednesday afternoon as Dominican men's soccer erased an early deficit with five unanswered goals in a 5-1 PacWest victory over Biola at Kennelly Field.
The Penguins improved to 2-3-4 overall and 1-0-1 in conference play, putting nine of their 11 shots on goal. Biola finished with 10 shots but placed only three on frame as Dominican earned its second victory in three matches. Jaral finished with two goals and an assist for five points, Sotomayor added his first multi-goal match of the season and
Norman Tellez contributed a goal and an assist.
Biola struck first in the 19th minute as Kyle Denn worked the ball along the end line before a close-range shot deflected off goalkeeper
Colin Nestor and into the upper portion of the net at the near post. Dominican needed only 46 seconds to respond. Tellez collected the ball and weaved between a pair of defenders before slipping a pass to Jaral near the top of the box. Jaral met it with a one-time right-footed strike and drove the ball into the lower-right corner to level the match at 1-1.
The Penguins moved in front in the 27th minute on a sequence that began with
Howard Cooper sending a long ball up the right side to
Sharod Williams behind the defense. Williams cut back and worked his way along the top of the box before pushing a ball to a charging Sotomayor. The pass arrived slightly behind him, but Sotomayor brought it under control, closed toward goal and beat Ethan Kell at the near post for a 2-1 advantage. Williams received the official assist. Four minutes later,
Griffin Brophy won the ball from the Biola defense and carried it into the penalty area, holding up the play long enough to draw the goalkeeper and defenders toward him. Brophy then found an angle to slip the ball across to Sotomayor, who buried his shot into the open net for the 3-1 lead in the 31st minute.
Dominican carried the two-goal advantage into halftime and needed barely four minutes after the restart to add another. Jaral took the ball into the left side of the box and crossed toward the trailing Tellez, who drove a right-footed finish past Kell at the near post in the 50th minute. The goal returned the favor from their first-half connection, with Jaral earning the assist after Tellez had set up his opening goal. Jaral completed his brace only seconds later. He carried the ball laterally across the top of the penalty area, worked around a defender and fired a right-footed shot into the upper portion of the net to make it 5-1 in the 51st minute. The goal gave Jaral five points for the match and capped a stretch of five Dominican goals in just under 32 minutes.
Anthony Stainer nearly added to the margin midway through the second half, putting three consecutive shots on goal within 12 seconds, but Kell stopped all three. Nestor made his lone goalkeeper save in the 55th minute, while the Dominican defense also cleared another Biola attempt off the line later in the half to preserve the four-goal advantage.
Dominican returns to Kennelly Field on Saturday, Oct. 10, to host Point Loma at 3:30 p.m.
