Box Score
San Francisco, Calif. -- Academy of Art University men's soccer captured its first Pacific West Conference win in a 3-0 victory over Dixie State College. Junior forward Frankie Diaz, sophomore midfielder Richard Luna, and freshman forward Daniel Higa each scored one goal in the match. AAU now improves to 4-6-1 overall and 1-5 in PacWest play while the Red Storm falls to 2-4-1, 1-1 in conference.
“The boys showed a lot of resilience and heart coming off four tough defeats to come up with a big win,” Head Coach Daniel Rosaia said. “We had five matches in nine days so this was a huge win. The team defense played very well and attacked well out of the back. All the conference games are going to be difficult. It's going to be a tight race and every conference game is going to be a battle.”
Playing against the wind in the opening half, the Urban Knights managed to score a goal in just over three minutes into the first half when Diaz took a cross from junior midfielder Jaime Patino-Calvo and found the back of the net. Despite being outshot 13-4 in the period, Academy of Art headed into halftime leading 1-0.
In the second half, Diaz was the distributor on AAU's goal scored by Luna in the 49th minute. Luna, in the box on an attack, was given the cross and put it over a diving goalie. Now up 2-0, the Knights' offense wasn't finished as Higa showed his dribbling skills by getting past three different Red Storm defenders before scoring his goal in the 74th minute.
The Urban Knights had seven different players register a shot in the contest including a team-best four shots by freshman forward Brazer Bozlak. Diaz had one goal and one assist with his two shots on goal. The goalkeeper duties were again split between sophomore Daniel Waller and freshman Ian Sutherland who each finished three saves.
On the Red Storm's side, midfielder Robby Austin had a match-high five shots, but out of the team's 18 total shots, six were on goal. Goalkeeper Francisco Rivera played the entire match, allowed three goals, and recorded one save.
Academy of Art plays its next match against Hawaii Pacific University on Oct. 6 at Kezar Stadium. The kickoff is set for 3:00 PM.
