The distance between the penalty spot and the goal on a college soccer pitch is exactly 12 yards. When a kick is taken, the keeper has but a fraction of a second to react and attempt to cover an area 24 feet wide and 8 feet high – a difficult feat at best.
When a team has blown a two-goal lead in the NCAA tournament to force a penalty shootout for the second year in a row, when it is once again down to its last penalty and its keeper must make a save, that is the infinitesimal margin upon which hinges the fate of a season. No pressure.
Redshirt senior goalie Earl Edwards Jr., however, thrives in such situations.
His two sudden-death penalty stops brought the men’s soccer team back from the brink, as the Bruins erased deficits in both regulation and the shootout en route to an electrifying 3-3 (7-6) victory over the University of North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday night.
One year after being stunningly knocked out of the NCAA tournament on penalties by unseeded University of Connecticut, UCLA’s shootout victory sent the team onwards to the College Cup in Cary, N.C.
In the first half, the Bruins bombarded the Tar Heel defense after gaining a one-man advantage thanks a red card issued to UNC in the 20th minute, but were stunned by a cracking free kick in the 40th minute. Just like that, the Bruins – bewildered, bemused, dazed and confused – entered halftime down by a goal.
“You could just sense the team, the players, getting so downtrodden in the locker room at halftime – wondering if this wasn’t going to be our night, if things weren’t going to go as we had hoped,” said coach Jorge Salcedo.
It certainly seemed that way for the next 20 minutes of the match, as three more enticing Bruin chances drifted just inches wide of the goal. Then finally, a breakthrough, one that flipped the match on its head.
The clock showed 69 minutes as freshman striker Abu Danladi scooped a ball over the Tar Heel defense to sophomore winger Brian Iloski, whose shot rolled off the right post and barely crossed the line – equalizing the score at 1.
Enlivened, the Bruins surged and grabbed the lead through their freshman forwards, as Christian Chavez and Danladi each scored to send the crowd into hysterics.
The scoreboard read 3-1 in the 75th minute, and the Bruins had somehow circled the wagons to turn a 1-0 deficit into a two-goal advantage in the span of six minutes. They seemed ready to put the game to bed as Salcedo made several defensive substitutions to close out the match.
Instead, it was the Bruins who went to sleep – and the tide of the game turned again.
A UNC corner in the 75th minute caused a scramble in front of the box, and all of a sudden the ball was in the back of the net and the score was 3-2. Moments later, another chance for UNC – another goal. Caught in their inopportune reverie, the Bruins awoke 25 seconds later to their worst nightmare.
“Going up 3-1, we had a certain confidence,” Chavez said. “It was so disappointing to give that lead up so quickly.”
Neither in regulation nor in overtime could either team break through. And so it was that for the second year running, the Bruin season would be decided by a penalty shootout.
After the match, a grinning Danladi recalled the moments before penalties.
“(Coach) told us, ‘Don’t wait for the next day to regret that you didn’t hit the ball as hard as you can.’”
The Bruins took his words to heart, even after a brilliant save on their first kick put them down 1-0 in the shootout. They slammed shot after shot emphatically home, extending the shootout just long enough for Edwards to etch his name into history and send his team to the College Cup semifinals on Friday.
One more week, two more matches – absolutely no regrets.