You win some, and you lose some … but sometimes you just tie.
The No. 4 ranked UCLA men’s soccer team saw its five-match winning streak come to a halt Sunday, when it played to a 1-1 draw with the Washington Huskies in Seattle, Wash.
Although the Bruins (6-1-1, 1-0-1) are still unbeaten in their last six contests, coach Jorge Salcedo made it clear that ties, in any instance, are not what this UCLA squad is aiming for.
“Obviously we want to win every game in the Pac-10,” Salcedo said after Sunday’s match.
However, Salcedo acknowledges the difficulty of playing back-to-back road matches in the Pac-10, especially when traveling north to play in the dreary conditions of Oregon and Washington.
The Bruins began Pac-10 play Friday night in Corvallis, Oregon, where they defeated the Oregon State Beavers (4-3-2, 0-1-0), 3-1. Less than 48 hours later, UCLA bounced over to Seattle, Wash. to face the Washington Huskies Sunday afternoon.
“Very few teams come up here and win both of these games,” Salcedo said. “It’s a tough road trip with the elements and the wind and the fields. The elements didn’t help us at all.”
The Bruins got off to the best imaginable start on Sunday against the Huskies (3-4-3. 0-0-2), when senior midfielder Kyle Nakazawa, who has played a major role in carrying the Bruins through their recent win streak, scored the game’s first goal in the seventh minute of play on a 25-yard free kick.
During the six-match absence of senior midfielder Michael Stephens, who has been competing with the U.S. Under-20 National Team in Egypt for the past two weeks but will return to the Bruins this week, Nakazawa has been on a tear. In those six matches, Nakazawa has tallied seven goals and three assists and has had a hand in 10 of the 15 goals that the Bruins have scored during those matches.
“Kyle has been very effective with his scoring and just making good plays,” Salcedo said. “But Kyle is good when (Michael) Stephens is here and has also really stepped up in his absence.”
But a little over half way through the match, the momentum shifted drastically in the Huskies’ favor when senior midfielder Danny Suits mishit a Huskies cross-kick and the ball slipped into the Bruins net to tie the game.
From that point on in the second half, the Huskies outshot the Bruins 13-6 after both squads had only three shots apiece on goal in the first half.
Despite the Huskies’ newfound aggression, Bruin redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Brian Rowe, who is filling in for senior goalkeeper Brian Perk, did not disappoint. Perk is also been competing in Egypt on the U.S. U-20 National Team.
Rowe racked up six saves in total, four of those coming in the second half.
“Michael (Stephens) and Brian (Perk) will be back this week and we look forward to having them back, but Brian Rowe has done an extremely good job in goal in Perk’s absence,” Salcedo said.
Although the Bruins wish they could have started off their Pac-10 season with two consecutive wins, Salcedo understands easy victories come seldomly in the Pac-10, if ever.
“The Pac-10 is a grind and it’s challenging,” Salcedo said. “We’re starting off with three straight road matches because we travel to San Diego State next week. It’s just extremely tough.”
Sunday, the Bruins will travel to San Diego State to take on the Aztecs before they return home for their Pac-10 home opener against California on Oct. 16.