Box Score

Oakland, CA – Saturday afternoon at Merritt College Stadium, an early advantage for Holy Names lasted much of the way before ART U Men's Soccer delivered the equalizer in the 83rd minute and forced a tie. A hard-fought match that was the Urban Knights' final non-conference contest saw Malcolm McLellan and William "Willy" Velasco Villa connect on a game-changing goal.

"We didn't perform well in the first half, but it was good to see us adjust and raise the level in the second half," head coach Mike Keller said.

There were two early corner kicks for Aron Ekberg to reflect Academy of Art's early offensive push. Runar Gudbjartsson would then get a header on a ball at 1:17, but it sailed wide and soon Holy Names had begun to respond. The Hawks got their new leading scorer, Jamie Phillips, in on the action and his shot from the close left wing resulted in a quick 1-0 lead for HNU.

Minutes later, Carlos Hernandez and Thorvaldur "Thobbi" Sveinsson each put attempts on frame, however, Holy Names goalkeeper Phillip Poser responded with saves on each occasion. Patrick Heinemann and Kristof Urbanyi also had close chances that were scooped up by Poser as well. Phillips nearly put his team up 2-0 in the 28th minute on a shot that ricocheted off the post and later Joshua Leader was able to stop an attempt by David Norton in the 34th minute.

Three corner kicks came for ART U in the final four minutes of the period, but still a 1-0 Hawks lead carried into halftime. Much like the first half, Ekberg offered a pair of corner kicks early in the second after Urbanyi had a shot on frame from the close right wing, but still the Knights could not break through.

As the match progressed, it appeared the Hawks might hold on for a 1-0 victory, but then in the 83rd minute, Academy of Art changed those plans. McLellan had come up close to the goal on the attack and served the ball with his left foot to Velasco Villa who hit it out of the air into the net as he stood alone at the back post.

Now tied 1-1, the teams soon found things heading to overtime where McLellan quickly had a shot attempt from the top of the box in the 93rd minute, but it went high. Later in the 97th minute, Ekberg also fired one from the top of the box only to see it saved by Poser. Approaching the final minute, Norton headed one just wide and the match progressed into the second OT.

There, McLellan once again had a chance from inside the box which hit the post and came out. Frederik Nagel put one ball high in the 105th minute and Leader was tested one final time in the 107th minute when Norton sent one from inside the box. He made the save and the end result would be a 1-1 tie.

For the 7-4-2 Urban Knights, Velasco Villa got his third goal of the season and McLellan logged his first assist thus far. Leader added four saves and one goal allowed in 110 minutes.

Holy Names had Phillips' eighth goal of the year get them to a 3-7-2 record to date. Defensively, Poser finished with six saves and the one goal surrendered in a complete 110 minutes as well.

Academy of Art will travel to Hawaii later this coming week for a four-match roadtrip that takes them to Chaminade (Oct. 26), BYU-Hawaii (Oct. 28), UH Hilo (Oct. 31), and Hawaii Pacific (Nov. 2).

"We have a week to get ready for Hawaii and as always we are looking for consistent high level performance," Coach Keller said. "Hawaii with be a tough test of this team and we will train hard to be ready for it."