No. 15 UCLA men’s soccer (1-2) had its first road trip of the season, taking two losses on the East Coast against No. 6 Maryland (3-0) and Georgetown (4-0), leaving them both undefeated on the season.
Friday
The men’s soccer team suffered a 3-2 loss in overtime against No. 6 Maryland – the Bruins’ first of the season.
In the team’s first road game of the season, the Bruins came back from single-goal deficits twice against the Terrapins, with almost all of the scoring coming in the second half of the match.
Not a single shot found the back of a net during the first half, but the Terrapins outshot the Bruins 7-1 in the first 45 minutes, with UCLA’s sole shot coming courtesy of junior defender Erik Holt five minutes into the match.
“We had some tough breaks tonight,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “But that’s a part of the experience of playing in a hostile environment.”
One of those tough breaks came just after the 55th minute of the match. UCLA committed a foul in the box that gave Maryland a penalty kick, leading to the Terrapins’ first goal of the match.
Ten minutes later, Holt scored the Bruins’ first goal of the game and his first of the season. He logged four shots Friday, the most for UCLA.
Maryland recaptured the lead on a goal from forward Eric Matzelevich. But senior midfielder Brian Iloski answered back and tied the match up with 11 minutes left in the match.
The match went into overtime at two goals a piece.
At just over seven minutes into the first period of overtime Sebastian Elney slipped into the box past UCLA’s goalie and buried the game’s final goal.
The Terrapins outshot the Bruins 19-9 in the contest and took home their third victory of the season.
“Maryland will prove to be one of the best teams in the country this season and our group is relatively new, but absolutely went toe to toe with them tonight,” Salcedo said.
Monday
No. 15 UCLA continued its East Coast road trip with a match against Georgetown on Monday morning.
The Bruins found themselves trailing just 12 minutes into the match after a Hoya goal, which proved to be all Georgetown needed in its 1-0 victory.
UCLA failed to record 10 shots for the second consecutive match and were outshot 15-9. The Bruins also tallied just one shot on goal in comparison to Georgetown’s eight.
Sophomore goalie Kevin Silva made a handful of stops from point blank that kept the Bruins within striking distance for the entirety of the match. He finished with seven total saves.
Georgetown has only allowed one goal all year. The Hoyas are outscoring opponents 9-1 and have a defense that has shown it can run with one of the top 15 teams in the nation. The Hoyas will begin conference play Saturday undefeated.
After a pair of close losses, the Bruins are headed back to Westwood. UCLA will face UNLV at Drake Stadium on Monday, when it will have the chance to pull its record back to .500 following a slow start to the season.