Box Score
San Francisco, CA – In the first 2010 home match for Urban Knight men's soccer, Academy of Art University dropped a 2-0 decision to Dixie State College Thursday at Boxer Stadium. ART U was nearly even with the Red Storm on shots as well as corner kicks throughout a physical match of PacWest opponents. The Urban Knights had a penalty kick opportunity close to halftime, but they could not it into a goal and ended up sustaining a tough loss in their conference opener.
ART U and Dixie State battled through 35 scoreless minutes of action to begin the match. In the 18th minute, junior midfielder Richard Luna fired the Knights' first shot, but it drifted up too high over the goal. The Red Storm were able to break through in the 36th minute when forward Jordan Roylance netted a shot from the center of the box on a pass from midfielder Nyle Ortiz.
Before the half was through, however, freshman defender Gustav Hedberg found himself with a prime scoring chance in his first match of the season. Hedberg, who had been kept out of non-conference play due to injury, was fouled inside the box in the 40th minute, setting him up for a penalty kick against Dixie State's goalkeeper. The potentially game-tying shot went to Hedberg's right and the keeper guessed right to make the save.
Academy of Art University was behind 1-0 heading into halftime, but the Knights continued to have opportunities in the second period. The Red Storm, however, pushed their advantage with a goal in the 49th minute by forward John Jensen who put a deflected pass from Roylance into the upper right corner.
Unfortunately for ART U, Dixie State held on for the 2-0 victory and now sport a 1-3 overall record, 1-0 in PacWest Play. The Knights drop to 1-3, 0-1 in PacWest competition.
Five different Academy of Art University players recorded a single shot in the contest including Luna, Hedberg, freshman midfielder Andrew Durano, and junior midfielder Richard Martin. Junior goalkeeper Daniel Waller played the entire 90 minutes between the pipes for ART U, registering three saves. The Urban Knights wrapped up the game with five shots to seven by the Red Storm and nearly even on corner kicks 5-6.
Dixie State was led by Roylance who finished the match with three points by way of a goal and an assist. Jensen contributed a goal as well with goalkeeper Tyler Walters earning the shutout with one save to his credit.
The Urban Knights will be back in action this Saturday, Sept. 18 when they host Grand Canyon at Boxer Stadium. Opening kickoff for the PacWest matchup is set for 2:00 PM.
