The UCLA men’s soccer team went to whatever lengths
necessary in order to accomplish their goal this weekend.
The No. 17 Bruins, who prior to this weekend were seen near the
bottom of the Pac-10 standings, toppled the undefeated and untied
No. 4 Washington Huskies on Friday night before doing the same to
Oregon State on Sunday.
“Our goal this weekend was to play hard and to try to get
two wins, and we ultimately got our goal,” sophomore
midfielder/forward Jason Leopoldo said.
Against the Huskies, the Bruins were just two minutes from
winning the game before defender Ty Harden dribbled into the box
and struck from close range against the Bruins’ freshman
goalie Brian Perk, sending the game into overtime.
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But once the Bruins entered overtime, they turned up their level
of play and outshot the Huskies 10-2.
“It was very disappointing to get that goal scored on us
with two minutes left in the game, so we just came into the huddle
and said that we would put everything we had into trying to win
that game,” Leopoldo said.
As the final seconds of the second overtime period began to tick
off, the Bruins appeared to have at least earned a tie against the
Pac-10 frontrunners. But freshman midfielder Kyle Nakazawa would
have nothing to do with a tie as he attempted to end the game with
a shot from distance.
Though his attempt was unsuccessful, freshman midfielder James
Jaramillo sank the rebound into the back of the net for his first
collegiate goal.
“That was the greatest feeling ever,” Jaramillo
said. “My first collegiate goal ““ and for it to be a
game-winning goal was just an amazing feeling. I couldn’t
have asked for anything better.”
After the Friday game, which UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo called an
absolute battle, the Bruins knew they would have to recover in time
to take on the Beavers in another conference game.
Within the first 10 minutes of the game, Nakazawa took advantage
of a failed clearance by 0 goalkeeper Jason Mariner. The freshman
from Palos Verdes Estates took a shot on goal from over 20 yards
and gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
“I’ve been working shots from distance in practice
so I thought I’d try one there and it worked out,”
Nakazawa said.
But the rest of the first half was one the Bruins would rather
forget. Oregon State began to dominate possession and equalized the
score with a rebound.
“Sometimes scoring an early goal in soccer is the kiss of
death,” Salcedo said. “You often lose your focus and
(the) mentality isn’t there. After we scored that goal in the
first half we had a big letdown for the rest of the half and we
didn’t play well at all.
However, the Bruins quickly adjusted to the Beavers, switching
their formation at halftime from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2 setup and
scoring early in the half again as Leopoldo netted a pass from
freshman forward David Estrada, who entered the game midway through
the first half.
“Once we got the ball, we had to control the ball from
side to side, because we knew they were committing to one side and
the other side of the field was open for us to take advantage
of,” Nakazawa said.
Though the Beavers didn’t let up as they had several
chances in the waning moments of the game, senior goalkeeper Eric
Reed made a series of critical saves that gave the Bruins the
victory and an accomplished goal ““ an additional boost in the
Pac-10 standings.