ROCKFORD, Ill. - The Rockford University men's soccer team had the daunting task of opening NACC play on Wednesday night against perennial power Dominican University. The Stars have won ten of the twelve NACC regular season titles since the inception of the conference, including an undefeated season last year. However the Regents played the Stars tough for the majority of the match before Dominican pulled away late for a 6-1 win. 

The match remained within reach for most of the day thanks in large part to solid goalkeeping from junior Anthony Beck (Fishers, Ind.). Beck held a potent Dominican offense to just two goals in the first half while making five saves. The Stars goals in the opening period came in the seventh minute off a header from corner kick and from a shot just outside the goalie box in the 21st minute.

However from that moment forward, Rockford really buckled down defensively as the score remained 2-0 until midway through the second half. Dominican would finally break through in the 73rd minute scoring its third goal of the match and extending its lead to 3-0. Despite being down by three, the Regents continued to scrap, claw and fight their way back into the match with a goal of their own exactly 50 seconds later. It was freshman Alonzo Carrillo (Harvard, Ill.) who found the back of the net for the second time this season off assists from Erik Manriquez (Rockford, Ill.) and Fernando Mercado (Harvard, Ill.) to pull the Regents back within two at 3-1. Unfortunately Dominican put the game away scoring a trio of goals over the final 14 minutes en route to a 6-1 win.

The RU men's soccer team concludes its four game road trip on Saturday, September 23 at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM.