Box Score

San Francisco, CA – In a game where Academy of Art University Men's Soccer fired the second-most shots in program history, the Urban Knights put away Dominican 3-1 in the first of two meetings this season. The Icelandic trio of Jon "Jay" Eldon, Runar Gudbjartsson, and Jonmundur Gretarsson all got into the scoring act Monday out at Crocker Amazon Park where ART U made it five wins in their past six matches.

"I'm really pleased with the progress and the attitude of the guys so far and I'm really looking forward to see what level the guys can get to this year," head coach Mike Keller said.

Playing with a lot of energy from the very outset, Academy of Art continuously pushed the issue on the offensive end for the first 20 minutes. The Knights made Dominican's Patrick Rabbitt work hard as Kristof Urbanyi sent the first attempt 45 seconds in and later Eldon, Gretarsson, and Frederik Nagel all had attempts that had to be stopped by the goalkeeper.

With 21:21 on the clock, Gretarsson crossed a ball from the right side which grazed Rabbitt and soon settled into Eldon's possession before he put it into the back of the net. The goal represented something ART U had been looking for; an early lead. However, that advantage lasted just three seconds as Dominican's David Mendez recognized a situation at the ensuing kickoff with Luca Theis not close enough to the goal and no pressure on the ball which led him to a lob shot from midfield and an incredibly quick rebuttal.

"We've talked about having urgency to start the game off," assistant coach David Frank said. "We've gotten behind by a goal and then kind of switched it on and come back. It was great to get the early goal, but we had a little mental lapse afterwards and that kind of killed our flow in the first half. We tried to get our second goal right away, but it didn't come until the second half. We showed a lot of belief in the way we want to play and know that if we do that, we will get goals and get results."

The 1-1 tie would hold up for the remainder of the half and for more than 20 minutes of the second period. At halftime, the shot margin was rather one-sided with ART U up 14-1 despite the knotted contest. The Knights continued to shoot, only this time it was on newly inserted Dominican goalie Erik Anderson. Jesus "Chava" Sanchez and William "Willy" Velasco Villa each had attempts early on and later, in the 68th minute, Nagel added another.

That same minute, Academy of Art found itself with a prime opportunity off a corner kick by Urbanyi. The ball reached Gudbjartsson whose strategic positioning and 6-0 frame allowed him to get a head over the defender and score straight on, giving his team a 2-1 advantage.

"A goal is a goal so it didn't mean much for me [personally]; it was just good to get a head start in the game," Gudbjartsson said. "Everyone could see that we were pretty dominant in the game, but they defended well so it was good to get a goal early in the second half."

Although ART U offered more attempts thereafter, it was Dominican who soon responded with several shots of its own. The Penguins tested Theis during a three-minute span, but the freshman saved each and every one. In the 85th minute, Leonardo Bartelle would have his shot blocked to foreshadow what was to come two minutes later as he put one that deflected off a Dominican defender to Gretarsson for a goal to the far post.

That insurance goal made it 3-1 Academy of Art and from there the non-conference victory was attained. The Urban Knights had two first-time goal scorers get in the books Monday with Eldon and Gudbjartsson connecting while Gretarsson moved into a tie with Nagel for the team lead with four on the year. Theis finished with four saves and one goal allowed in a complete 90 minutes for an ART U squad that moves to 5-3 overall. The Knights had 34 shots in total which was second to the program record of 41 that came against Simpson earlier this season.

Defensively, Academy of Art relied on players like Manuel Garcia-Resendez who helped provide a tough back line that held Dominican to a single shot in the first half and just six shots in the contest.

"It just felt good to go out there. We practice every day and have good defense and a solid line so I'm happy coach put me in and we're ready for the next one," Manuel Garcia-Resendez said. "We have a great team and just have to keep building off of it."

The Penguins were led by Mendez's unassisted goal and saw Rabbitt record four saves with one goal allowed in 45 minutes while Anderson took the loss after logging seven saves with two goals allowed in the second half. Dominican is 2-5-2 overall this season.

Academy of Art now gets set for its third Bay Area opponent, Holy Names, who comes to Crocker Amazon Park this Friday, Oct. 4 for a 1:00 PM kickoff following the women's match. This will be a PacWest Conference contest.

"Anytime we play a new opponent, we want to play at our full potential and we believe doing that can get us another win to be the best team in the bay," Coach Frank said.