Box Score

San Rafael, CA -- In the brief history of the Academy of Art women's soccer team, the Urban Knights have played  Dominican eight times, and in those games only two have been decided by more than one goal. In the past two years, over a streak of four matchups against the Penguins without a loss, the Knights had late heroics from their players. Unfortunately, there were no last-minute goals on Thursday, as a goal midway through the second half gave the Penguins all the lead they would need as they handed the Urban Knights a 1-0 defeat.

"“This season has been filled with close games decided by one goal margins, showing not only the growth for the young program but also young squad this year," said head coach Aileen Nasypany. "We have battled evenly with every team in this conference. Today was no different as the team had multiple golden opportunities that unfortunately this time were just not capitalized on in front of the net to initially take the lead and then to possibly tie it up.”

It looked to be another low-scoring affair between these two teams, who have scored a combined two goals or less four times in their history, including a pair of 1-1 ties. The Knights had been on the right side of those defensive battles, including the first matchup between these two teams back on Sep. 27, when Beth Barker's goal with 13 seconds left gave ART U a 1-0 win. On Thursday both teams were knotted up at 0-0 in the first half, with neither team able to get the ball in the back of the net but both having chances that were either saved or went wide.

“The team produced a well-played first half, into the sun and wind," Naspany said. "I was proud of our possession, work rate, defensive effort. “

The Penguins got their chance in transition after the Knights had a great opportunity to score, with Makayla Hickman's shot rebounding off of the Dominican keeper to Barker. Barker has two game-winning goals and assisted on a third winner, but her shot this time was hauled in by the keeper to keep it scoreless. Directly following that, however, the Penguins mounted their attack, with Stephanie Owens finding Julianna Bratsberg on the cross, who got it past Rachael Rempe to give Dominican a 1-0 lead with 32 minutes left.

That was all the Penguins would need, as they staved off late runs by the Urban Knights and turned away every attempt they had at equalizing. Thursday also marked the seventh time in 13 games this year that Rempe has given up one goal or less, but unfortunately she was saddled with the loss. The Knights will play again on Saturday night in Fresno against the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific.