The location of UCLA women’s soccer games over the weekend might’ve been only about an hour’s drive apart, but how each game played out couldn’t have been more distant.
The No. 1 Bruins opened the weekend with a 3-0 win on Friday night against the Oregon State Beavers (0-14-3, 0-8-0 Pac-12), courtesy of three goals that all came after the Bruins were held goalless for the first 45 minutes.
Sunday’s 5-0 win against Oregon (6-8-2, 2-5-1), however, was a completely different story. This time, it took UCLA (15-0-2, 7-0-1) only 10 minutes to open the scoring against Oregon.
A short corner to Taylor Smith gave the junior forward a chance to launch a cross from the right wing. The delivery bounced around the penalty box before making its way to the feet of UCLA’s senior left back, Caprice Dydasco, on the left side. The senior defender fired a shot which, with a bit of luck, beat Oregon goalkeeper, Abby Steele to put UCLA up 1-0.
“It came off the defender – misdirected it and the goalie didn’t expect it to travel the way it did and it just went in,” Dydasco said.
Things seemed to be going all right for UCLA in the first half, as the Bruins were able to score two more times off crosses from the right flank.
Senior forward Kylie McCarthy side-footed a cross by senior midfielder Sam Mewis just a minute after UCLA’s first goal to score the team’s second. In the 40th minute, another cross, this time from redshirt freshman defender Zoey Goralski, resulted in another goal after Smith was able to head in the ball to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead at the end of the half.
“We’ve been working on it a lot in our training with regards to the attacking third, whether it’s the weight of the passing or crosses,” said UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell. “It’s nice to see that we’re executing in the final third.“
The Bruins managed to capitalize on going 3-0 early with two more goals from Mewis.
In the 63rd minute the Mewis latched onto a pass from sophomore midfielder Gabbi Miranda with a catch and turn. Mewis then dribbled the ball close to the right edge of the penalty box and put it away with a powerful shot.
The Bruins made sure the other side of the field wasn’t left out in the 78th minute with its fifth and final goal after redshirt sophomore midfielder Taylor Alderete’s cross from the left wing connected with a flick off Mewis’ right foot into the top right-corner.
UCLA’s eight goals over the past weekend comes in spite of the absence of four Bruin forwards – senior Rosie White was away with the New Zealand national team, sophomore Darian Jenkins was out with a concussion while junior Kodi Lavrusky and redshirt junior Courtney Proctor are both out with injuries.
McCarthy proved herself a suitable replacement, notching two goals of her own over the weekend.
“It’s a testament to the depth of our team to have four of our best forwards not here and still score eight goals in the weekend,” Mewis said. “It just shows how deep we are and that’s what we need going into tournament.”