Box Score
San Francisco, CA — It truly was a tale of two halves Saturday for the Academy of Art University men's soccer team against visiting Cal State East Bay.
 
After a deadlocked first half that saw 45 minutes of scoreless soccer and both teams with six shots each, the Urban Knights exploded for four goals on 13 shots in the second, earning their first win of 2014 with a 4-0 victory over the Pioneers at CCSF. 
Junior midfielder Malcolm McLellan followed up his goal-scoring performance on Thursday with a four-point day Saturday. McLellan assisted on the Knights' (1-1) first goal of the game in the 62nd minute and would made it 2-0 15 minutes later with his second goal of the year. He would later assist on the Knights' fourth and final goal to cap off the match.
 
The Pioneers (0-1) were shut down for most of the day in what was their season opener. They put just one shot on goal and took eight shots total. Rica Guerra took two shots for CSUEB and Kellen Crow was the lone Pioneer to challenge Urban Knights freshman goalkeeper Alejandro Escobedo between the posts.
 
For the rookie Escobedo, it was a day of firsts. He made his first collegiate start in goal, earned his first career victory and also notched his first career shutout in earning the clean sheet with one save.
 
It was Urban Knights newcomer Jake Walter who broke the scoreless tie 61 minutes, 58 seconds into the game. He received a long forward pass from McLellan right down the middle, where he dribbled into the goalkeeper box and beat CSUEB 'keeper Adrian Topete to the left, making it 1-0.
 
McLellan struck with his score in the 78th minute, finishing a tic-tac-toe feed across the top of the box from right to left, first from Frederik Nagel to Patrik Haley, who fed McLellan into the box where he beat Topete 1-on-1 with a low shot to make it 2-0.
 
ART U put the game out of reach for good 2:29 later when Carlos Hernandez took a pass from Kristof Urbanyi and buried it into the left side of the net from 23 yards away for a 3-0 lead. The play developed from a set piece after Urbanyi was fouled in the left corner. Instead of a lob into the box, he gently pushed the free kick to Hernandez for the finish.
 
Nagel iced the game in the 85th minute with an easy goal past Cal State East Bay replacement goalkeeper Steven Morgan, making it 4-0. The Pioneers defense was passing the ball back and forth, trying to look for an opening forward but McLellan jumped in and stole the ball, then gave it to Nagel who tapped the ball past Morgan for the score.
 
Not much developed in terms of opportunities in the first half as the game became a physical defensive showdown. McLellan put a shot on goal eight minutes in, but no ball would land on net for more than 20 minutes after that. A total of 48 fouls were called and four yellow cards were issued, alluding to the teams' tough play during the match.
 
The Urban Knights next travel to Chico to take on two California Collegiate Athletic Association opponents in the host Wildcats Friday and a neutral site match on Sept. 14 versus Humboldt State.