SAN FRANCISCO – Senior forward
Adrian Cekala set a pair of Academy of Art men's soccer career records with his goal in the 64th minute of ART U's match against UH Hilo on Friday, but it was the Vulcans who would spoil the day by squeezing out a 2-1 win in Pacific West Conference play.
Streaking toward the box in a one-on-one situation, Cekala was able to place a perfect strike from the corner of the box past the goalkeeper to the far post, which cut the Urban Knights (0-7-1, 0-3-0 PacWest) deficit in half. Unfortunately, ART U was not able to overcome the early lead built by the Vulcans (3-5-0, 1-3-0 PacWest) after they scored a minute and a half apart in the ninth and 10th minutes, with both goals coming from Luca Lippert. The match was otherwise fairly even, as both teams totaled the exact same number of shots (16) and shots on goal (6).
While it was only the third goal of the season for Cekala, it was the 17th goal of his career, breaking the tie with
Grimur Grimsson atop the ART U career goals list. Additionally, the goal bumped Cekala up to 39 points in his time at Academy of Art, as he snaps that tie with
Kristof Urbanyi for the most in program history. Cekala has now joined the PacWest leaders in the category, tying him for the third-most goals in the conference. It was his first goal of the season that was not scored on a penalty kick.
Even more active than Cekala was sophomore forward
Gilly Miller, firing a match-high seven shots during the match with three on goal, including a strike that came very early into the match in which he struck the corner of the goal frame with a liner of a shot. The seven shots are tied for the eighth most in a single match in program history. In all, eight different Urban Knights would get involved in the offense and record a shot, with junior midfielder
Breki Einarsson the only other to record multiple shots (two). Freshman goalkeeper
Omer Tal would make four stops in total after denying two looks in each half.
ART U will get the chance to end the week on a winning note when they return to the pitch this Sunday for a matchup against cross-bay rival Holy Names at 2:30 p.m.
