Whenever UCLA gets together with USC, regardless of time, sport,
and significance, the battle is heated.
When the Bruins faced off with the Trojans in a contest of
Pacific-8 Conference hockey rivals at HealthSouth Training Center
in El Segundo on Friday, this tradition held true. Unfortunately
for the Bruins, the powerful Trojan hockey team defeated them
9-1.
“They just punished us,” first-year coach Vic
Venasky said. “I think we hung with the Trojans for the first
eight minutes, but things went downhill from there.”
Scoring goal after goal, the Trojan team incited a fever pitch
in the team’s faithful. This created an exciting game
atmosphere and allowed for some tension between the fans of their
respective teams.
Some choice words ““ words that begin with “f”
““ were uttered, further cementing the opposition between the
two schools.
The only bright spot for the Bruins was a third period goal from
freshman David Freeland.
Saturday night’s game against UCSD allowed for a few more
bright spots, but the end result was the same. The Tritons downed
the Bruins 9-7, dropping UCLA’s overall record to 1-5, 1-4 in
Pac-8 play.
Ryan Samec provided the scoring impetus for the Bruins, as he
led the team with four goals.
Venasky was more pleased with his team’s performance
against the Tritons, but he admits that it still has a long way to
go.
“The third period against UCSD was the team’s best
period of the year,” Venasky said.
In that period the team outscored the Tritons 3-1. The offense
was better than against USC but the Bruins’ defense has room
for improvement.
UCLA hosts the Oregon Ducks next Friday and Saturday at
HealthSouth Training Center.