BOX SCORE

ROHNERT PARK, Calif-  Sophomore Kelly Davila headed home a solid cross from Aaron Glover in the 74th minute to give the 21st-ranked Sonoma State men's soccer team a 1-0 victory over Academy of Art in the season opener for both teams, Thursday afternoon in Rohnert Park.  The victory marks the fourth straight year that the Seawolves have opened a season with a win, as they go to 1-0-0 in 2011.

"They (Academy of Art) were very tough to play against," head coach Marcus Ziemer said. "They were organized defensively and, although we had a couple of good chances in the first half, their keeper came up big."

Despite controlling ball for most of the first half, a fairly nondescript early box score showed a 0-0 tie at the break.  Sonoma had a narrow edge in shots (7-5) and a lead in corners as well (3-1), but their attacks were thwarted by a stout Urban Knight defense. 

Nearly a half hour into the second half, the Seawolves looked like they might be running out of time.  However, at that point, several opportunities were presented, the best of which, the Seawolves were able to convert. 

In one of his runs down the right side of the field, Glover, a sophomore from Ventura, chipped a ball toward the mouth of the goal where Davila elevated, then met the ball flush and pushed it over oustretched arms of AAU keeper Ian Sutherland.  It was the fourth career goal for Davila, who had a nice pre-season run for the Seawolves, as well.

Said Ziemer, "We were patient and tried to keep the ball moving to wear them down. I started to get a little worried that we weren't going to find a goal, but Glover played a nice ball in and Davila got up and headed it past their keeper."

Sonoma had another promising chance a few minutes later, but a header by Taylor Jones was deflected away by an AAU defender just as the ball was ready to cross the line. 

Though the final shot count would be reasonably close (14-9), the Seawolves certainly had more legitimate chances at the goal. 

Andrew Ball went relatively untested in his 90 minutes in goal, making two saves for the shutout in his first regular season outing.  A nice defensive effort by the back line smothered nearly all AAU threats.

While the game started out slow, emotions began to flare a bit in the second half, resulting in a total of six cards- two on Sonoma and four, including a red, on the Academy of Art.

The Seawolves were playing without their top two returning scorers, Trevor Hurst and Taylor Varnadore.  They, along with head coach Marcus Ziemer, were forced to watch from the sidelines as a result of their ejection from last year's NCAA West Regional match.

The Seawolves will close out their abbreviated non-conference season next Tuesday when they host Notre Dame de Namur at Seawolf Field.  Kickoff is set for 5:00 pm.

"Our next game will be very tough," Ziemer added. "Notre Dame de Namur was very good last year and I know that they had a good recruiting year. We will need to be much sharper if we want to beat them on Tuesday."