This weekend UCLA will take their act to the other side of the
country and face two of the premier teams in college soccer in the
Rutgers Phillips/Adidas Classic.
The No. 17 Bruins (5-1) will face host No. 13 Rutgers tonight
and will take on top ranked St. Johns on Sunday.
The Scarlet Knights’ freshman standout Sam Castellanos
leads the team in scoring with nine points. The Bruins will counter
Rutgers with their stingy defense, which has allowed just five
goals this season.
“We try to play good collective defense, and we think we
have enough good players that teams need to be worried about
us,” UCLA head coach Tom Fitzgerald said. “We
don’t concern ourselves with any one player on any
team.”
UCLA is coming off with a 7-0 victory over San Diego State, but
they realize that goals will be a little harder to come by this
weekend. Both opponents are currently allowing less than a goal per
game, with St. Johns surrendering just 0.34 goals per game.
“We want to dictate the pace of the game and also score
goals,” Fitzgerald said. “To do that we need to take
our best game out there.”
The UCLA offense will likely run through senior forward Tim
Pierce, who was recently named conference player of the week.
“Tim is a natural goal scorer, and it’s difficult to
find players like that,” Fitzgerald said.
When the dust settles and this two-game tournament is complete,
the Bruins will be left with a good idea as to where their place is
among college soccer’s elite.
“We want to find out how good we are,” Fitzgerald
said. “These teams will help us get there.”