The last time the UCLA men’s soccer team went up against its rival, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, in the playoffs was the 2006 NCAA Championship, a match in which the Gauchos were victorious, 2-1.
Three years later, the tables finally turned.
The sixth-seeded Bruins knocked their in-state rivals out of the 2009 NCAA tournament on Sunday, pulling out a nail-biting 2-1 victory over UCSB at Drake Stadium.
But UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo was adamant that Sunday’s victory was not a revenge match and that with every new season comes a clean slate.
“It was never a revenge match,” Salcedo said. “Every year you have a different group of guys. A handful of our guys played in that game, a few of their guys played in that game as well, but we don’t look back and think that now this is something that undoes what happened in 2006.”
Bruin goalkeeper Brian Perk did not agree with his coach, claiming that Sunday’s game was more that just another playoff match.
“I mean we’re all still a little bitter from losing that obviously,” said Perk after Sunday’s match. “It’s more just a rivalry. If you ask me and most of the guys, they’re probably our biggest rivals.”
It may have been that attitude that guided Perk to the outstanding performance he put on.
After giving up a goal in the 10th minute, allowing UCSB to grab an early 1-0 lead, Perk shut down the Gauchos for the rest of the game. Although he only racked up two saves in the game, they were both in crunch time and both spectacular.
But Perk was careful not to take all the credit, applauding his team for its gritty effort.
“We just fought,” Perk said. “We took our chances where we could, and we just pulled it out.”
Four minutes after the Gauchos scored the game’s opening goal, UCLA sophomore forward Fernando Monge tied the game up off a rebounded shot by sophomore defender Andy Rose.
And in the 36th minute, UCLA senior midfielder Kyle Nakazawa and freshman midfielder Ryan Hollingshead executed a picture-perfect give-and-go, with Hollingshead converting the Bruins’ second goal of the first half, which would prove to be the game winner.
The second half turned out to be a role-reversal of the first, with the Gauchos pressing the offense for the majority of the half and earning their fair share of chances to knot the game at two.
“It’s funny because it was kind of like the opposite,” Salcedo said. “I remember the last couple minutes in the 2006 final, we had a chance and barely missed stepping into it.”
But in the end, the UCLA defense was able to stand strong and come out on top.
“Credit to our team,” Salcedo said. “We were very resilient, and we did what we needed to. We look forward to the opportunity to play against Wake Forest, and we look forward to traveling and seeing what happens.”
As for Perk, not only is the goalkeeper happy to be moving on to the quarterfinals, but he is also glad the Bruins got to send a message to their in-state rival UCSB in the process:
“It’s good to let them know we’re still top dog.”