HILO, Hawai'i – The Vulcans men's soccer team rallied late to net a pair of goals to topple Academy of Art, 3-2, Saturday afternoon in Pacific West Conference play at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
With under 12 minutes to go, Tom Vorkastner's (Tangstedt, Germany/Gymnasium Heidberg) corner kick found Julian Garcia (Albuquerque, N.M./Saint Pius X HS) on the near-side to relay the ball in for the equalizer.
Seven minutes later, Keegan Ferreira (San Diego, Calif./Patrick Henry HS) took a long cross from just inside the right corner and connected with Pablo Gill (Madrid, Spain/Lake Travis HS) for the game-winning header.
Less than a minute prior, Gill had just entered into the game for the first time on Saturday.
"It's an amazing coaching move by me," Vulcan head coach Garrett Estrin joked. "No, but Pablo was fresh, we had five minutes to go and maybe throw a fresh body against a team that's tired. It wasn't exactly how I envisioned it but it was a good ball whipped in by Keegan and a good way to get [Gill] his first college goal."
Anree Bogart (Chula Vista, Calif./Eastlake HS) made his fourth start in goal and recorded his first win in making two saves.
The Urban Knights scored early in the game with a fifth-minute goal by Jose Cortez with an assist from Nolan Shafik.
Just under six minutes later, the Vulcans tied the score with Vorkastner's second goal in consecutive games, this time tapping in Bryan Schraier's (Foothill Ranch, Calif./Trabuco Hills HS) cross-pass from the right side.
"It was a pretty topsy-turvy game," Estrin said. "We got to take care of the ball and be a little bit cleaner throughout the game from minute-one to minute-90. I don't think we've put together a full 90."
The tie remained until about midway through the second half with ART U's Nixon Thompson finding the back of the net after Elvis Mensah quickly connected a goal kick down the field.
"We've been a bit unlucky in the sense that we've had the lead in some of these games, but total-team effort today," Estrin said." Happy for the guys to get back on the winning side of things. Hopefully this is something more for the rest of the month and the start of something good."
What's Next
Hawai'i Hilo improved to 1-1 in PacWest play (2-4-2 overall) while Academy of Art fell to 3-6-1 overall, 0-3 PacWest.
The Vulcans will go on an inter-island road trip with matches on O'ahu against Chaminade (1-1 PacWest) Oct. 7 and Hawai'i Pacific (1-1 PacWest) Oct. 9.
UH Hilo will return for its final two home games on Oct. 15 against Fresno Pacific and Oct. 18 against Holy Names.
