Fw: No. 16 Washington University Men’s Soccer and No. 21 Dominican University (Ill.) Play to High Scoring 3-3 Draw

No. 16 Washington University Men's Soccer and No. 21 Dominican University (Ill.) Play to High Scoring 3-3 Draw St. Louis, Mo., October 24, 2008 – The No. 16 Washington University in St. Louis men's soccer team let a two-goal second-half lead slip away as it played to a 3-3 tie with No. 21 Dominican University (Ill.) at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo., on Friday night. After taking a 2-1 lead into halftime, the Bears pushed their lead to 3-1 in the second, but Dominican struck twice in just 1:06 to knot the score at three goals apiece and force the tie.         Dominican entered the match-up with a 14-2 overall record and the second-highest scoring offense among all NCAA Division III teams at 4.27 goals per game. Washington U. had not played in a game this year with more than four total goals, and the Bears, who began the evening averaging 1.77 goals per game hung with the fast-paced Dominican attack.         The game was also critical for standing in the NCAA Division III Central Region. Despite Washington University's edge in the polls, Dominican entered the first NCAA regional ranking of the year ranked fourth, while the Red and Green checked in at the seventh spot.         Freshman Pat McLean scored two goals in the first half to put the Bears in the drivers seat in the early going. His first score of the night came in the seventh minute and occurred after a miscue by Dominican goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa. With McLean chasing a long pass down the right side of the field, Sliwa came out to play the ball at the corner of his box, but he faltered as McLean came bearing down on him. McLean wasted no time stripping Sliwa of the ball, which he sent into an empty net.         McLean's second goal came in the 17th minute of action. Sophomore Randall Schoen threw the ball in from the left side of the field to junior John Hengel, who dribbled directly into the Stars' box. Initially stymied by a Dominican defender, Hengel did manage to push a shot on goal. Sliwa made a save on the shot but was unable to reel in the rebound and McLean was there to take advantage of the loose ball and knock in his third score of the season.         The Stars pulled within one goal later in the first. After Schoen was whistled for a foul and handed a yellow card, Dominican's Michael Kapusta took a free kick near the Bears' end line. His pass found Stan Micic, who used his height advantage to rise over the WU defenders and head the ball past junior John Smelcer.         Hengel put the Red and Green back up by two in the second half. Taking a long pass from senior Marshall Plow, Hengel bore into the Dominican zone, and spun around the only defender separating him from Sliwa. With a good angle on the goal, he sent a shot into the right corner past a sprawling Sliwa, his team-leading eighth score of the season.         The Bears nearly pushed their lead to three goals later in the half, but what seemed like an innocuous miss at the time came back to hurt Washington U. in the end. Dominican was whistled for that appeared to take place inside of the box, but the referee spotted the ball just outside of the zone meaning there would be no penalty kick. Plow took the free kick for Washington U. and he fired a shot through the wall of Dominican defenders, which parted to let the shot through. But instead of finding the back of the net Plow's bending shot ricocheted off the left goal post and the Stars cleared it out of the zone.         Avoiding a three-goal deficit, Dominican's offense got on track. The Stars cut the score to 3-2 as Kapusta sent a long throw in from the left side to Rigoberto Barajas, who headed the ball into the middle of the field to find Aaron Romo, who then headed the ball into the net. Following that goal, Dominican marched right back into Washington U. territory and after a flurry of action in front of the net, Kapusta sent a loose ball past Smelcer to tie the game, where it remained through the two overtime periods.         Friday night's game was a rematch of the 2007 NCAA Division III Regional Final match-up between the two schools. In a game that also went into overtime last November, the Bears edged Dominican, 1-0, to advance to the NCAA sectionals. After Friday's tie, the Red and Green are 2-0-2 all-time against the Stars.         Washington U. (10-3-1) will play its final non-conference game of the season on Monday, Oct. 27, at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo. The Bears will take on Maryville University at 7 p.m. -30- Vincent Novicki Assistant Sports Information Director Washington University in St. Louis (314) 935-4709 (work) (314) 614-2253 (cell) (314) 935-4600 (fax) http://bearsports.wustl.edu