SAN FRANCISCO -- On a chilly foggy morning in the presidio, the Academy of Art men's soccer game was anything but cool. Tensions flared in a match that featured two teams eager to notch their first PacWest conference win, and despite having more than twice the opportunities than UH Hilo, the Urban Knights conceded a late goal they could not equalize.

ART U came out strong and controlled the opening minutes of the game. The Urban Knights collected six shots in the first 13 minutes without giving up a single shot themselves. Junior midfielder Adrian Cekala claimed three of the shots, with his best opportunity coming on a free kick 25 yards out that sailed just over the goal.

Academy of Art's back-line was superb and did not surrender a shot until the 27th minute of the game that was saved by sophomore Kris Jensson. In fact, ART U only allowed two shots the entire half despite being down a player after suffering a red card in the 29th minute and losing senior defender Christian "Tate" Sprague earlier in the period due to an injury. 

"I thought the boys played great despite being down a man for a long period," said head coach Alex Yi. "Losing Tate so early in the game hurt as he's been so good for us, but guys stepped in and did a good job."

The second half featured the only goal of the match coming off the foot of Matt Wilkinson in the 86th minute who buried a ball in the back right corner to put UH Hilo up 1-0. The Urban Knights took six shots of their own in the half bringing their total shots to 13 compared to Hilo's six.

"Credit to Hilo who battled and took advantage of their opportunity," said Yi.

Cekala had another solid offensive performance collecting the most shots of any Knight with four to bring his team leading season total to 18.

After dropping the match 1-0, Academy of Art falls to 1-7-1 overall and 0-4-1 in conference. ART U will take a brief pause in PacWest play to challenge Fresno Pacific to a non-conference rematch Saturday, Oct. 6 at CCSF Soccer Field.