On a frigid Sunday night at Drake Stadium, the UCLA men’s soccer team found itself on the brink of being taken to penalty kicks, with its third-round NCAA Tournament match against the Dartmouth Big Green knotted at one goal apiece.
Indeed, 109 minutes had passed in the match, and all the Bruins had to show for their 19 shots was a solitary first-half goal by junior midfielder Eder Arreola. The two teams had been deadlocked since the Big Green responded with a goal by defender Brian Giudicelli in the 60th minute, but with 15 seconds remaining in the second overtime period, everything changed.
UCLA freshman defender Joe Sofia launched a throw-in from 25 yards down the right sideline into the box. The ball caromed high off a Dartmouth defender, and Arreola found himself on the doorstep of a wide-open goal. The Bruin midfielder banged home the loose ball and snatched victory from the jaws of uncertainty, ensuring that the Bruins advanced to the quarterfinals without the drama of a shoot-out.
“I just chucked it and hoped for the best,” Sofia said. “It’s the end of the game, so anything can happen. Our team did a really good job of getting in there and just causing havoc in the box, and it worked out our way.”
The Bruins’ 2-1 overtime victory ended in perhaps the most exhilarating way possible, with just nine seconds remaining on the clock.
While the spectators had resigned themselves to wondering who would be placing the ball on the spot, Arreola and the rest of the Bruins were determined to not let the game get that far.
“We were fighting for that goal the whole time,” Arreola said. “We weren’t thinking about (penalty kicks). We wanted to finish the game until the last second.”
UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo was as surprised as the fans when his team pulled out the victory, and credited Arreola for his strong play throughout the game.
“We always are hopeful on corner kicks or long throw-ins that something good’s going to happen, and rarely have we had much success on our long throw-ins this year,” Salcedo said. “(Dartmouth) had a little bit of misfortune and a missed header from their defender, and Eder was on the doorstep and knocked it home.”
Lost in the excitement was the excellent play of Bruin goalkeeper Brian Rowe.
The redshirt junior made multiple saves and stops in the first half that kept the Big Green off the board. Dartmouth’s attackers, particularly junior forward Lucky Mkosana, were frustrated time and time again by Rowe, who culled numerous attacking chances by himself.
Rowe was indomitable in the air as well, nullifying the threat from each of Dartmouth’s seven first-half corner kicks.
The Bruins, the No. 8 seed in the tournament, will next travel to Kentucky to face the top-seeded Louisville Cardinals in the quarterfinals. Louisville is the only remaining undefeated team in college soccer, but the Bruins are undaunted by the challenge presented to them.
“It’s going to be a very tough game in Louisville, but I think the way we’ve been playing, we’re young, we’re excited, we keep maturing every game over the postseason,” Sofia said.