SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Despite a late push and tallies from senior
Cameron Baca and junior
Joe Blakely, the Academy of Art Urban Knights trotted off Kennelly Field with a 3-2 victory on Thursday.
ART U struck first with a sensational strike off the foot of Breki Einarsson that kissed the crossbar before finding the back of the net in the 9th minute of the afternoon matinee. Dominican offered a quick response as Baca headed home his first goal of the season after a corner kick by senior
Brian Sanchez found senior
Roberto Garcia who flicked it into a scrum of players, bring the game even at 1-1.
The goals kept coming as the Urban Knights' Christian Schaffner took the ball off a falling Gilly Miller before sending it behind senior
Ruben Raygoza of the Penguins, giving Art U a 2-1 advantage. The Urban Knights added another before the end of the half in the 37th minute when a penalty was called on what seemed to be the inner inch of the outside edge of the box, giving Art U a penalty kick. Moments later, Adrian Cekala capitalized on the Penguins' misfortune, giving the Urban Knights a 3-1 lead heading into the half.
The two combatants retook the field before embarking on a chippy second half that helped add to the 22 total fouls called on the afternoon, including one yellow card that went against ART U. Dominican cut the ART U lead in half in the 64th minute when a ball was centered into the box by freshman
Diego Grande who deflected it off
Dominic Galletti before finding the right foot of Blakely who was on the fortunate side of an easy tap-in tally, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
Dominican's best and final push came in the 79th minute when the team tallied four shots in just 34 seconds. The slew of strikes started when
Roberto Garcia was stopped by ART U keeper Omer Tal, with the deflection landing directly onto the foot of Blakely. A flailing Tal was seen as a backdrop as Art U made two consecutive team saves in the form of gang-blocks by the defense before Garcia sent the fourth and final shot of the flurry over the net.
Despite this attack and spending the vast majority of the final moments of the game on the offensive side of the field, the Urban Knights enjoyed a 3-2 advantage when the horn sounded.
Garcia led the way offensively for Dominican, tallying for total shots with two finding the target, while junior Chris Berrios also added three shots to the team total of 12.
Dominican's regular season schedule will conclude on Saturday, Nov. 13 when the Penguins take on former Dominican assistant soccer coach
Diego Marroquin and the Holy Names Hawks at 7:30 p.m.
