Dominican Men's Soccer Captures Conference Tourney Title to Earn NCAA Bid

Dominican University men's soccer coach Erick Baumann stood along the sideline and applauded his players as they walked off the field at the end of the first half of the Northern Athletics Conference championship match.

The Stars scored twice while firing off eight shots in the first 45 minutes, and rode that strong opening effort to a 2-0 triumph over Aurora University before a season-high crowd of 300 Saturday afternoon in River Forest.

"We played an excellent first half and scored two nice goals," Baumann said. "We were organized defensively and put in a good 45 minutes. That's something we really talked about, coming out with a good start to the game and taking control from the first whistle."

"Yesterday we didn't have the best practice of the season, but we came out with a lot of intensity today," said Stars sophomore Andy Lynch, who scored his team's second goal. "It felt good in the first half. The second half we didn't play as well as we did in the first half but we did what we needed to do to win."

The victory earned the Stars (18-1-1) a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament for the ninth consecutive season. Pairings will be announced Monday.

has won five straight NAC regular season and tournament titles. The Stars are undefeated in 62 NAC matches since the conference began in 2006. They've registered a 60-0-2 conference record in that span.

Aurora (13-7-1) came out aggressive and physical, but Dominican began to assert its will after the opening minutes and eventually dominated the first half. The home team took a 1-0 lead when Ryan Roberts kicked Kyle Boekeloo's pass out of the air in front of the goal and into the right side of the net in the 12th minute.

"It's nice to get that first one in," Roberts said. "Kyle just made a nice play, a smart play on the blocks. He didn't try to do too much with it by shooting it. He found me on the back post and I tucked it away."

After being denied on two prime scoring chances on successive headers, Dominican found the back of the net again. Lynch drilled a laser from above the left corner of the box and into the right side of the goal in the 36th minute, putting the Stars up 2-0.

"I just saw a little space and put it at the far post," Lynch said. "It felt good once I hit it. Once I shot it I knew it was going in."

Maxwell Gutbrod returned to the net after missing Dominican's semifinal with a knee injury to post his 13th shutout of the season. He made a leaping, one-handed save on a header in the 63rd minute to keep the Spartans scoreless.

Now that it's checked off another item on its list of season goals, Dominican will prepare for the NCAA tournament.

"The expectation is to try to get back to a Final Four," Baumann said. "It's going to be very difficult to do, but we're going to try our best to get there."

"I think we're bringing it together at the right time," Roberts said. "We can use this as a confidence booster."