GAME STATS Box Score

Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton College men's soccer team dropped a 3-1 decision to Dominican University on Wednesday.

The Thunder fall to 3-4-1 on the season. The No. 15-ranked Stars improve to 5-1.

Early on, Dominican was the aggressor. The visitors got chances point blank in front of the goal in the fourth minute, but two saves thwarted the opportunity. Dominican continued to own possession for much of the half.

But midway through the opening half, the home side started to get momentum. Wheaton began to press up and used good passing through traffic to get on the attack. The first and second balls in the air also went to Wheaton, who tallied four corner kicks inthe half.

Dominican came very close to breaking onto the scoreboard in the 42nd minute, but sweeper Matt Hussey cleared the ball off the end line. However, the Stars broke through with only a minute left in the half. A cross from Edwin Lagunas found Logan Marvin undefended in front of the net for the easy goal.

The physical play picked up in the second half. Dominican continued to get quality runs behind the defense with good speed from the forwards. At 66:02, Robbie Baird gave the visitors a 2-0 lead by scoring off a rebound from five yards out. Five minutes later, the Stars struck again with David Aranda hitting a 15-yard strike unassisted.

Feeling the urgency, Wheaton came right back and scored 30 seconds later. A wide open run by Adam Blackman brought him one-on-one with the goalie, who deflected the ball away. Drew Golz was there to collect the deflection and fed Mitchell Paur (PICTURED) on the left side to score the empty-net goal.

The Thunder ended up being outshot 17-7 on the match while the corner kicks were even at six each. Wheaton goalie Ryan Seager made four saves while Dominican goalkeeper Dan Cimicata picked up two saves.

The Thunder head out to California this weekend, with a Saturday game at Westmont College and a Monday matchup at Occidental College.