SAN FRANCISCO – Academy of Art men's soccer stood together as the curtain fell on their 2023 season with Head Coach Danny Kirkland having led the Urban Knights in a year filled with determination, passion, triumphs, and teamwork.

As the team started the year off with a six-match homestand, the 2023 campaign began with a contest against Cal Poly Humboldt on Aug. 31. The Knights moved on to host East Bay just two days later on Sept. 2, and the match finalized as a scoreless draw with sophomore goalkeeper Jaiden Brooks putting up six saves to keep the Pioneers off the scoreboard. In the next match, ART U tallied up another non-conference tie in their 2-2 draw against Dominican on Sept. 7. The Knights saw their first goals of the season in the match, as freshman midfielder Joey Glaab brought the team back from a two-goal deficit with his first collegiate scores. 

The Knights entered the back half of their homestand with a match against Cal State Monterey Bay on Sept. 11, and against UC Santa Cruz on Sept. 15, saw themselves find their third tie of the year with a 1-1 final. Glaab once again found the back of the net in the contest for his third goal of the season while Brooks put up four saves to keep the match tethered. ART U finished off their starting home matches as they hosted No. 20 St. Mary's (Tex.) on Sept 15.

The first of a two-match road trip arrived on Sept. 19 when the Knights traveled to Stanislaus State's home turf. Senior forward Jossart Jodito scored his first goal of the year with a back-post header from a perfect ball dished into the box from junior defender Abraham Valencia across the goalkeeper's line. The Knights paired up with future Pacific West Conference member Jessup in their last non-conference match of the season on Sept. 22, as another member of ART U found his first goal in an Urban Knight uniform when junior forward Alejandro Palos managed to send a ball past the man in goal on an unassisted strike to record his first of the season.

The second homestand of the year had the Knights host the trio of PacWest Hawai'i schools in an action-packed week. The six-day stretch started off with a contest against UH Hilo on Sept. 25 where the Knights scored twice, with the first being a junior defender Chris Stokes header off a well-placed corner kick by redshirt sophomore midfielder Elvis Mensah. Palos recorded the second goal on a tap-in from a cross by senior midfielder/forward Gilly Miller, Miller's first of many points of the week.

In the team's next match against Chaminade on Sept. 28, Mensah found his first goal of the year, and Jodito headed in his second. While Miller recorded the assist for the go-ahead goal, he later shut the door on the Silverswords to take the match 3-1 on a self-earned penalty he slotted by the goalie. Against Hawai'i Pacific on Sept. 30, Palos netted another goal while Miller provided the assist, and earned another from a pass to sophomore midfielder Nixon Thompson that he rolled into the bottom left corner. Another made penalty shot came for Miller, and as the final whistle rang the Knights received their second win of the week with a 3-2 final score.

Two goals and four assists is what Miller ended the week off with, and these eight points earned Miller PacWest Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 25 - Oct. 1. Miller became the seventh Urban Knight all time to be named the PacWest Player of the Week for Academy of Art men's soccer and the first since 2015.

A quick two-part Southern California trip came shortly after the strong week for ART U where the Knights saw Concordia first on Oct. 7, a match where Valencia scored off a sophomore defender Teo Benedick and Mensah assist. The Knights then stopped by Azusa Pacific on Oct. 9 before heading back up north.

Before the match began back at home on Oct. 14, Academy of Art men's soccer honored their seniors with a pregame ceremony. The honorees included senior midfielder Kendryx Soriano, Jossart Jodito, and Gilly Miller in the last home match of their respective careers. In the contest, Glaab found himself scoring his fourth goal of the year and Miller converted yet another made penalty shot to take the lead at the time. The match concluded with a 2-2 final, and the squad came out of the special day with a tie against the Sunbirds.

A quick stop at Dominican came on Oct. 21, and the team proceeded to head back down to SoCal for their last trip of the year. While battling Westmont on Oct. 30 and Point Loma on Nov. 2, the Knights took on the Eagles at Biola on Nov. 4 for their last match of the season. In dominant fashion, ART U claimed the victory with a score of 3-0 with a season-high 17 shots as Glaab tacked on two more goals and Mensah found his third of the year. Brooks also recorded his season high in saves on the match (9), collecting the shutout on 17 shots faced.

"We took a lot of encouragement from the final match of the season and proved to ourselves what we were capable of throughout the season," Kirkland said. "It was important to end the year on a high note and leave everyone, players and staff alike, hungry to build for next year."

While Miller finished off his impressive ART U career, the talented freshman in Glaab stepped up this year and exceeded expectations. The pair received All-PacWest Second Team honors for their strong efforts, as the duo co-led the squad in points on the year (12).

"We are all really pleased for both Gilly and Joey and the accolades they received," Kirkland said. "Both were fully deserved and for Gilly, it was a great way to sign off on his successful ART U career. For Joey, it's a platform to build on for the future and shows his teammates and other incoming student athletes what is possible with the right attitude and work-rate. I'd like to give a special mention to our other two graduates, Jossart Jodito and Kendryx Soriano. Both have been a pleasure to work with throughout their time in the program and we wish them all the very best for their future endeavors."

As the squad looks forward to next season, they will remember some key takeaways from the 2023 campaign.

"Signs of improvement within the group are pretty clear, which is promising for future years," Kirkland said. "The team matured throughout the season and many individuals were much stronger players by the season's close than they were in August. It is no secret that we're a young group and a lot of underclassmen gained valuable minutes and starts which will stand them in good stead for the future. There's a lot of hard work ahead and the road is long, but we'll attack it head-on as we look to build a program we are all really proud of."