At the start of the season, it looked like the No. 10 UCLA
men’s soccer team was one piece short of a complete
puzzle.
With a top-drawer keeper, a veteran defense and an influx of
talented youth in the midfield, the Bruins seemed to have
everything but a proven goal scorer to put the ball in the back of
the net.
After tying Cal State Northridge 1-1 at home to open the season,
UCLA endured a frustrating stretch, losing to then-No. 4 Maryland,
4-1, and No. 3 Virginia, 1-0, on the road where the Bruins had
trouble scoring.
Instead of folding, the team responded by going on a four-game
winning streak in which it averaged 2.5 goals a game.
“I think we started showing some urgency in practice for
finishing,” defender Mike Zaher said.
“(At) the beginning of the year, we realized, “˜We
don’t have any finishers, what are we going to do?’ and
started sulking over it. (And then) during practice we started
getting more urgent and hungry to score goals, and then goals
started coming from everybody,” Zaher said.
A lot of those goals came from Maxwell Griffin, who has emerged
as the Bruins leading goal scorer and the missing piece of the
puzzle.
Coming into the weekend’s play in the Bay Area, Griffin
had already surpassed his totals from last year with 5 goals and
one assist, totalling 11 points.
“I knew I didn’t score as many goals as I wanted to
last year, so I definitely needed to stand up and take the lead and
put some goals away,” Griffin said.
The sophomore earned College Soccer News National Player of the
Week honors when he got a goal and an assist in the 2-1 win over
Santa Clara, and scored a goal in the Bruins’ 2-0 win over
San Francisco on his 19th birthday.
“Maxwell is our leading goal scorer,” coach Jorge
Salcedo said. “He’s on fire.”
Griffin has not been working solo, but rather has been leading a
UCLA attack that has started working much better as a team.
The Bruins have seen goals come from eight different players on
the roster, with the other seven on the list after Griffin all tied
with one.
“We don’t have the individual forward necessarily
that will do it on his own and be able to create the opportunities
and finish himself,” Zaher said.
“We build up as a team, so it’s really exciting to
see goals are coming from everybody. Maxwell Griffin obviously is
our leading goal scorer, but from Greg Folk to our defenders (and
midfielder Kyle) Nakazawa, everybody’s scoring,” Zaher
said.
With improved finishing, the Bruins, who are young up front and
have already come far to show they can more than compete with the
big boys, still think they have a long way to go before
they’re as good as they can be.
“It was tough losing to Maryland and Virginia over there,
but … it made us grow as a team,” Salcedo said “I
think we’re starting to play pretty well, but are we playing
our best? Not at all.”