Men's Soccer plays solid first half in 5-2 loss to Dominican

Chicago, IL. -- The Principia Men's soccer team traveled to Chicago to play their first game of the season against a tough opponent in The Dominican Stars. Principia came out of the gates fast, scoring the first two goals of the game. Dominican came out in the second half on a mission and managed four second half goals to take the match 5-2.

Victor DeCastro scored a spectacular bicycle kick goal in the first 10 minutes of the game to give Principia a quick start to the game. After a solid 20 minutes of play, freshman Kaleb Keller was able to bury a shot from 20 yards out for a 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately the second half belonged to Dominican as they took advantage of some sloppy defense by Principia and ultimately won 5-2.  The score doesn't reflect the quality of play by Principia and they look forward to taking the field again tomorrow to show they have even more to give.

A look at the box score 
Senior goalkeeper Matt Jones had 6 saves for the day, playing well despite Dominican's 22 shots attempted, 11 of those being shots on goal.  

Good to know 
Dominican University not only went undefeated in their conference for the 2016 season but are also favorites to win the conference for the 2017 season. 

They said it
"I think that we can take that first half and build into a full 90 minute game and that will get us a final result we are looking for."
        - Carson Hussey (Sophomore)

"Our team came out flying from the get go.  We had some great attacking sequences in the first half and could have scored another two goals.  Matt Jones and the defensive line had a solid first half and shut down one of the best attackers in the region.  The second half we lost steam and a few players due to injury that opened up a few gaps that Dominican was able to exploit.  Despite the lopsided score line, I am proud of how our guys played.  We have a young team and we need to be more fit.  The next few weeks of non-conference matchups will give us valuable experience and fitness that we will need come conference play."
        -Jess Semnacher (Head Coach)