After playing to four straight winless overtimes in the past two weeks, the UCLA men’s soccer team was not just physically tired, but also mentally and emotionally fatigued, said coach Jorge Salcedo.
But after a pregame ceremony celebrating UCLA’s seniors and their families, the Bruins seemed to get an extra surge of energy that carried them throughout the game.
In a game critical to Pac-12 and national rankings, No. 4 UCLA played host to No. 3 Washington after the two teams fought to a 2-2 draw a week ago. This Sunday, however, the Bruins were able to hold on to a 2-1 win, their first win in more than two weeks.
“It’s a long time coming,” Salcedo said. “I told the guys to continue to believe and trust that they were doing the right things; obviously four overtime games in a row was physically challenging, emotionally challenging, but I thought we got what we deserved today.”
For UCLA (8-3-4, 3-1-3 Pac-12), the win was more than just handing Washington (11-1-4, 4-1-2) its first loss of the season. It was also the last regular season home game of the year, making it Senior Day.
“For all us seniors, it’s probably one of our last games at Drake so we all wanted to get that win,” said senior defender Joe Sofia. “Our senior (forward) Victor Chavez stepped up big with the first goal, and luckily we had (freshman forward/midfielder) Gage Zerboni who came in, did a great job, and finished it off.”
Chavez’s goal gave the Bruins an early 1-0 lead before a long somersaulting flip throw-in bounced off a couple Huskie forwards and found the back of the net, tying the game 1-1 going into halftime.
That throw-in gave UCLA a lot of problems throughout the game, as Washington senior defender Michael Harris used a somersault while pivoting on the ball to catapult the ball upwards to 40 yards.
Time and time again, it created almost corner kick-like situations for the Huskies from all over the field, but the Bruin defense was able to hold strong for all but one throw-in.
“It was one of those things that we had to play a little differently to deal with that long strong so our formation was different,” Salcedo said. “It’s something you’ve never seen before in college soccer and very, very, very difficult to play against.”
But in the second half, Salcedo began to go back to his usual formations, moving junior midfielder Leo Stolz back into a more forward position. Soon after, Stolz assisted on what would turn out to be Zerboni’s game-winning goal in the 69th minute.
The goal didn’t just save the Bruins from what could have been five straight overtime games, but the win will stand as a critical game this point in the season, with three road games left on the regular season schedule.
“It was a very big game, a big result with Senior Day on top of everything,” Chavez said. “With (Washington) at No. 3, we’re behind a little bit under them, we’re glad we got it – huge win for us.”