More than 100 minutes had passed since the opening whistle, and Kelyn Rowe knew he needed to do something quickly. If he and his teammates failed to produce some more late magic, the UCLA men’s soccer team would come out of its first Pac-10 road trip of the season without a single win to show for its efforts.
California junior goalkeeper David Bingham had been impenetrable up to that point, making seven saves over the regulation and first overtime periods. The Bruins had racked up eight shots on goal to the Golden Bears’ five, but had been unable to come up with a winner.
In the 105th minute, Rowe changed all of that with a goal that UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo called “world-class,” giving the Bruins the 1-0 victory and improving their record to 9-3-1 overall and 4-1-0 in the Pac-10.
“You rarely see a goal of that quality in college,” Salcedo said.
“It was an absolutely fantastic finish, and a great layoff from Victor Chavez. If we had goals of the season in college, I think that’d be the best of the year.”
A ball was played in the air to Chavez outside the penalty area, and the forward saw Rowe waiting for a pass 24 yards from the goal. Chavez laid a pinpoint ball to his fellow freshman with his first touch, and Rowe blasted the ball at the top corner of the far post.
“Oh, man, when the ball crossed the line, the first thing I thought was, “˜Thank God this game is over and we’re on top,'” Rowe said.
Thanks to Rowe’s heroics, No. 13 UCLA ended its annual Northern California road trip on a high note on Sunday, but the Bruins couldn’t overcome a resilient Stanford side on Friday, losing 2-1 in Palo Alto. Rowe scored the Bruins’ only goal in that game as well, bringing his total to a team-high six on the season. The Cardinal got a late winner from Dersu Abolfathi, who scored in the 86th minute, just 30 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
“We were great in the second half against Stanford but weren’t lucky enough to (win),” Salcedo said. “I’m very proud of our performance (against Cal). Our guys showed a lot of heart, a lot of grit, a lot of skill.”
The win puts the Bruins in a tie with the No. 10 Golden Bears atop the Pac-10 standings, with four wins and one loss apiece.
This year’s trip up north was a mirror image of that of 2009: UCLA suffered its only Pac-10 defeat of last season at Stanford, but not before defeating the Golden Bears 1-0 in Berkeley . Last year’s 2-0 defeat to the Cardinal snapped a 10-game unbeaten streak for the Bruins and spawned a 1-2-2 run to close out the season.
Junior midfielder Andy Rose believes it will not happen again.
“We’re such a different team from last year,” Rose said. “The team this year is very resilient. There are a lot of young guys who aren’t scared of anything.”