'Lopes Beat Academy of Art 1-0

Thursday, October 28

San Francisco, CA

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Academy of Art

Ben Paneccasio

10/28/2010 1:44:08 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Joel Horn

The Academy of Art University men’s soccer team had 11 days to prepare for today’s game against Grand Canyon University, and it showed. Despite the disparate records of the two teams (11-2-1 overall, 9-1-0 in the Pacific West Conference for the Antelopes; 5-9-0, 4-6-0 for the Urban Knights), the game was very competitive.

In the end, however, GCU came away with a 1-0 win over ART U, moving it ahead of Notre Dame de Namur (12-2-1, 9-1-1) into first place in the PacWest and setting up a huge matchup with the Argonauts on Saturday. The teams meet for the second time this season at 11:30 a.m. in Belmont, Calif. The winner will have the inside track for the PacWest championship, something the ‘Lopes have won three times in the four-year history of men’s soccer in the conference, including last year.

After Saturday, there will be just two regular-season games remaining for both teams. GCU hosts Chaminade (1-10-1, 0-9-1) on Wednesday and Friday (both games kick off at 5:45 p.m.), while NDNU faces Academy of Art and Dominican (3-9-3, 3-6-2) on the artificial turf at Koret Field on its campus.

Today’s game was played on Treasure Island, off of the Bay Bridge, to where it was moved on Tuesday because of expected inclement weather in San Francisco. The Urban Knights normally play their games at Boxer Stadium.

Sophomore forward Kyle Ciliento (Phoenix, AZ/Pinnacle, Saint Mary’s College of California) scored the game’s only goal on a header off of a cross from senior midfielder Joao "Johnny" Vieira (Amparo, Brazil/Barbosa, Marshalltown CC) in the 64th minute. It was Ciliento's 18^th goal of the season. The 2009 PacWest Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year leads the nation in goals, goals per game, points and points per game.

Senior Ben Paneccasio (Sydney, Australia/Rosebank College, Tyler Junior College) made one save and recorded his ninth shutout of the season. He had 12 shutouts last year, when he was named PacWest Goalkeeper of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.

The 'Lopes had a 13-3 advantage in shots in the game, as well as a 10-2 edge in corner kicks.

Nineteen fouls were called, 10 of them against the visitors.

"We came in here, showed up at the game and played a team we beat 6-0 a few weeks ago," Head Coach Petar Draksin said. "Sometimes those games are the hardest ones to play. Academy of Art played very good, played very hard. They were the first to the ball, they were very aggressive. They never threatened us, they never came close to scoring a goal, but everywhere else they played their hearts out..

"We played much better in the second half than we did in the first half. Johnny did a great job of getting the ball in the box, so the credit goes to Johnny for dribbling past several guys and getting a beautiful cross across the goal mouth, where Kyle headed it in. It was perfectly done.

"A win is a win, and we'll take it. Now we're getting ready for the big one, getting ready for all the marbles."

GCU and Art U met on Sept. 18 in San Francisco. Ciliento had two goals in the ‘Lopes’ win.

Box score

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