Keeping a Clean Sheet

Thursday, November 2

San Rafael, Calif.

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

15-0-2, 11-0-1PacWest

Dominican

4-10-2, 1-9-2PacWest

California Baptist

Dominican University of California

Photo by: Matt Ressler

11/2/2017 4:25:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — No. 4-ranked California Baptist University's offense may have been getting most of the credit this year – after all it boasts the best scoring average in NCAA Division II – but it was the defense that came up big Thursday afternoon to help the Lancers grab a 1-0 victory over Dominican.

It keeps the Lancers very much in the running for their first PacWest title since 2011, sitting in first place in the conference with an 11-0-1 PacWest record and 15-0-2 overall mark. The Penguins sit 4-10-2 overall, 1-9-2 in conference.

"We knew coming into today that this would be a difficult game," said Coach Coe Michaelson. "They have struggled for results this year, but they are tough and they play everyone very close."

CBU out-shot Dominican 19-to-3, but came up very unlucky in the first half, hitting the post or the crossbar a couple times. The Penguin goalkeeper also made seven saves in the game to try to keep his team in the game.

Despite the pendulum swinging in favor of CBU, Dominican created some dangerous chances and made the Lancer defense work for its 10^th shutout of the year. Edgar Benitez finished with three saves, while Dario Garcia, Uriel Mosqueda, Joey Scotti, Abe Placito, Gabriel Silva, and Victor Aguirre kept the Penguin chances to a minimum.

"With all of the accolades our attack has gotten today is a day to give the defenders a shout out," said Michaelson. "We missed a lot of really good chances and those guys at the back had to step up as a result. As many goals as we have scored, it's easy to forget that we have 10 clean sheets on the year and we needed them to do it again. That's a huge credit to Dario, Uri, Joey, Abe, Gabe, Edgar and Vic today."

The Lancers broke the scoreless streak in the 64^th minute when Aidan Apodaca scored off an assist from Joey Chica. The winger sent in a cross into the center of the 18-yard box, allowing Apodaca to get on the end of it and find the back of the net, 1-0. Apodaca – who already holds all three scoring records for CBU: single-game, single-season and career – tied the PacWest's scoring record with his 27^th of the year, previously set by Kyle Ciliento from Grand Canyon who had scored 27 goals in 20 games in 2010.

Dominican drew a red card in the 75^th minute to finish the game down a man, but CBU couldn't put another goal in to finish with the 1-0 result.

There's one last game to play before postseason with the Lancers heading to Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. The Argonauts dropped a 2-0 loss to Concordia today to take them out of the race, but Point Loma is still in the hunt after beating Holy Names 3-1 Thursday. The Lancers can claim the championship, however, with a win over the Argonauts on Saturday.

CBU has been the top team in the latest NCAA Division II West Region rankings and looks to hold onto that ranking come the Division II Selection Show, which airs Monday at 3:30 p.m. The top-two seeds in the region will host the first and second rounds of the postseason tournament, which kicks off on Nov. 9.