Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams & Austin McKeon)

San Francisco, CA -- ART U men's soccer team sent wave after wave of attacks at Dominican Friday afternoon, but the Penguins wound up coming away with a 2-0 victory. On a sunny yet cold day at Boxer Stadium, the Urban Knights out-shot DUC 18-11 with numerous attempts that nearly found the back of the net, however, Dominican early and once more in the second period to hold on for the win.

“The team played well today,” head coach Daniel Rosaia said. “We had our opportunities to score and sometimes with soccer, you just won't convert on your chances. [Dominican] had two sequences and they scored both, we just didn't put ours away. But the boys played hard so we will regroup and get ready to play on Sunday.”

The first goal of the match came after a mere 37 seconds had ticked off the clock as Dominican's Nuri Bon-Acosta sent a corner kick to David Mendez for a straightaway score. Though it would be a hill to climb coming back from being down early, Academy of Art was extremely close to tying the match on two particular occasions after the goal. In the first minute, senior midfielder Boomer Cruz launched a powerful stop that was only narrowly saved by the DUC goalkeeper Erik Anderson. The 19th minute saw senior midfielder Juan Zurita deliver a perfect header that would have gone far post if it had not been for the keeper's hand punching it off the crossbar.

Freshman forward Frederik Nagel then had a pair of opportunities in the 22nd minute in a breakaway situation, but both were blocked by the Penguins. With Dominican's goalie out of position, Cory Vanderpool made a last-second save to prevent a tie game. The 1-0 DUC advantage would hold up through halftime and in 56th minute, Mendez struck again for his second goal of the match. Determined play by senior midfielder Richard Luna and junior forward Grimur Grimsson spearheaded the offensive chances for the Knights late despite being down a man after Nagel was issued a red card in the 59th minute. Unfortunately for Academy of Art, Dominican held on to win 2-0 in the end.

Academy of Art received another strong day from its senior class on Friday. Contributions from Cruz, Zurita, and Vilminudur Sveinsson all gave ART U a fighting chance throughout. Seven different Urban Knight players notched at least one shot in the contest with Zurita's four attempts at the top. Two of those were on goal and both served as near-goals. Junior goalkeeper Ian Sutherland had three saves in his 10th consecutive start for the Knights. Heading into its final game of the season, ART U is 5-11 overall, 3-8 in the PacWest.

“Rich Luna played really well today and Vimmi is always a stalwart for us on defense. He's really the man,” head coach Daniel Rosaia said. “Grimur had a good 90 minutes and I thought Juan Zurita also had a nice game for us today. Boomer also did a great job playing several different positions for us today. He never slowed down for a second.”

Dominican was led by two goals from Mendez and an assist by Bon-Acosta. Defensively, Anderson earned the shutout with four saves. The Penguins move to 4-12-1 overall, 3-7-1 in PacWest action.

Sunday Senior Day represents the grand finale not only for Academy of Art men's soccer in 2011, but also the sendoff for six seniors (Vilmundur Sveinsson, Boomer Cruz, Daniel Waller, Richard Luna, Richard Martin, Juan Zurita), including five who have been with ART U since day one. The match, which pits the Knights against Hawaii-Hilo, is set for 1:30 PM and Fan Bus Central is the place to go if you want a ride from 620 Sutter that morning.