Redshirt senior goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. got the accolades on Saturday night, winning “Man of the Match” after his pair of clutch stops in the penalty shootout secured a 3-3 (7-6) victory for the men’s soccer team. But for the majority of Saturday’s NCAA quarterfinal, a freshman played a key role for the Bruins.
While it was Edwards who made sure the Bruins advanced to the NCAA College Cup, where they will open play against the No. 11 Providence Friars on Friday evening, it was freshman striker Abu Danladi who played the key role in ensuring the team made it to penalties.
On a day where senior midfielder Leo Stolz – the team’s usual offensive centerpiece – was not at his sharpest, DanladIi took over the mantle offensively.
The freshman was integral in every one of the Bruins’ goals, assisting two and scoring a third. The latter was a solo effort that saw him take the ball from the halfway line and sprint past two defenders into the open field before beating the keeper to the left and slotting the ball home to put UCLA up 3-1.
“Abu’s goal was an all-encompassing (show) of who he is as a player; his skill, his power, his creativity, his composure, his technique,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “That was all apparent in the goal he scored.”
Salcedo has spoken all season long about how central Danladi can be to the Bruin offense, a testimony proven by Danladi’s ability to harass defenses with his work rate and make incisive runs to create chances for others, as well as his ability to create goal-scoring opportunities.
Injured for the bulk of the year, Danladi regained fitness late in the season and made an immediate impact, tallying two goals and four assists in his past four games.
“My teammates have believed in me all year,” Danladi said, “Even with my injuries, they’ve believed I could (contribute) something, and they’ve helped me through all these hard times.”
One of those teammates is fellow freshman forward Christian Chavez, who scored the Bruins’ go-ahead goal on Saturday. Chavez said he was most excited about helping the team’s seniors reach the Cup in their final year with the team.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “(We freshmen) helping them get there with our efforts, it’s just such a great feeling.”
If the Bruins want to keep feeling good in the College Cup, they’ll have to triumph over their highest-ranked opponent yet in the No. 11 seed Friars, who are appearing in their first-ever NCAA semifinal.
Providence (16-4-2) has developed the nation’s third-best winning percentage this year by boasting one of the country’s top offensive attacks. The Friar foray ranks No. 16 in goals per game at 1.91, and is headlined by redshirt senior forward Markus Naglestad and a strike-team of senior forward Fabio and sophomore midfielder Dominik Machado. That trio has accounted for five of Providence’s seven goals so far in the tournament, including two in the Friars’ 3-2 upset win over No. 3 Michigan State in the NCAA quarterfinal.
The Bruin defense was the stingiest in the Pac-12 this year, and their offense has been reinforced by Danladi’s return. One step short of the championship match, the Bruins will look to see how they can fare against their sternest test yet.