PacWest Weekly Awards (Nov. 8)

IRVINE, Calif. – An offensive explosion for Academy of Art men's soccer led to a win on senior day, and has now led to a couple of conference honors for a pair of Urban Knights, as senior forward Adrian Cekala has been named the Co-Pacific West Conference Player of the Week while freshman defender Bilal Mihoubi was named the PacWest Defender of the Week. The awards are for matches played from Nov. 1-7. 

Looking to send the the seniors out of their final home collegiate contest on a winning note, the Urban Knights did just that by exploding for three goals within six minutes of each other and never looked back, finishing off the win in shutout fashion 4-0 over Chaminade. Fittingly, the senior Cekala did much of the damage in the match, striking for the first and what would eventually be the game-winning goal in the 29th minute. Not satisfied, Cekala would deposit another ball into the back of the net just six minutes later, marking the 20th goal of his ART U career, becoming the only player in Urban Knights history to reach that mark. It marked the fourth game-winning goal of Cekala's career, now tied for the third-most in program history. 

Mihoubi worked hard to make sure the Knights kept their second clean sheet of the season, making plays to clear the ball anytime it got close to the ART U box, marking the fourth time in his career that he has helped contribute to a shutout from the back line. Not only did he contribute on defense, but he found his way onto the scoresheet thanks to a goal with six seconds remaining, stealing the ball from his own box before sprinting the entire length of the field to score the first goal of his ART U career. 

While it is the first time an Urban Knight has earned the PacWest Player of the Week award this season, it is the second PacWest Defender of the Week award, with freshman goalkeeper Omer Tal collecting the honor earlier this season on Sept. 27. For Mihoubi, it is his first career weekly PacWest award, while Cekala has now three times been named the Player of the Week of in his career (twice in shortened 2020 season).