The UCLA men’s soccer team’s season came to an abrupt halt Saturday night when the Bruins lost a nine-goal thriller of a quarterfinal match on the road to the top-seeded Louisville Cardinals 5-4.
A last-minute strike by Cardinal forward Aaron Horton brought the goal-fest ““ which saw eight players putting their names on the scoresheet ““ to a conclusion in heartbreaking fashion for the No. 8 seeded Bruins, who had battled back to tie the match at 4-4 after leading 3-1 early in the match.
The Bruins were eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinals last year as well when they lost 2-0 at Wake Forest.
Junior winger Eder Arreola continued his fine run of play by opening the scoring eight minutes into the game. The Bruins found themselves up 2-0 just nine minutes later when freshman midfielder Kelyn Rowe netted a direct free kick from just outside the box past Louisville goalkeeper Andrew Boudreaux.
Louisville forward Colin Rolfe, whom UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo pinpointed as a potential threat in the week leading up to the encounter, lived up to his billing by scoring the first of his two goals of the night by way of his own free kick after the Bruins were called for a handball just outside the box in the 29th minute. The shot took a deflection off a UCLA defender and found its way past junior goalkeeper Brian Rowe and into the net.
The Bruins went up 3-1 on sophomore forward Chandler Hoffman’s goal four minutes later, but it was mostly downhill from there for UCLA.
Five minutes before halftime, Louisville was awarded a penalty, and midfielder Charlie Campbell converted the spot-kick past a sprawling Brian Rowe to bring Louisville within one and give them the momentum heading into halftime.
The Cardinals would use that momentum to its full effect in the second half, bursting out of the gates with Rolfe’s second goal of the match off a header from a free kick just three minutes after the restart. Rolfe also bagged an assist by setting up forward Nick DeLeon for the Cardinals’ third consecutive goal, turning the match on its head and forcing the Bruins to come up with yet another late-game miracle.
Freshman forward Victor Chavez gave UCLA its way back into the match with his 10th goal of the season in the 81st minute off of another long throw-in by freshman defender Joe Sofia, but Horton’s goal sealed the Bruins’ fate.
Compiled by Daniel Khayat, Bruin Sports reporter.