UCLA men’s soccer has not won a game against Stanford since 2013.
That streak was extended Sunday.
The Bruins (5-4, 1-1) fell to the Cardinal (5-1-3, 2-0) 3-0 at Stanford, unable to build on their momentum from Thursday’s win over California to start Pac-12 play.
UCLA’s defense kept Stanford from getting off a shot on goal in the first half, but the Cardinal forwards broke through in the second half, pouring in three goals within a 28-minute span.
“It was a good performance from us in the first half,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “In the second half it was not good enough. … It was disappointing that we couldn’t react better.”
Stanford forward Charlie Wehan gave his team the lead in the 52nd minute, burying a shot in the back left corner on a cross from defender Tanner Beason.
Forward Amir Bashti padded the Cardinal’s lead in the 67th minute, sending a line drive past Bruin freshman goalkeeper Justin Garces to put Stanford up 2-0.
In the 80th minute, a series of headers by Stanford ended in forward Jack O’Brien finding the back of the net with 10 minutes left to play.
UCLA’s only shot on goal came in the 41st minute, when redshirt junior defender Matthew Powell’s header off a corner kick just cleared the crossbar.
Salcedo said the game highlighted some issues that must be addressed moving forward in conference play.
The final score of 3-0 was the largest margin of defeat for the Bruins this season. They have been outscored 15-3 over their last five games against the Cardinal, who have won the Pac-12 title the last four years.
“They punish you for your mistakes,” Salcedo said. “That’s what they’ve done in the past. That what they did last year at UCLA and that’s what they did tonight.”
Salcedo said he thinks his team has a good shot at finally getting a win against the Cardinal when they host later this season. But for now, Salcedo said the first conference matchup highlighted some issues that he wants to address in conference play moving forward.
“We need to be better in the attacking half of field, and obviously not make mistakes in the defensive half of the field,” Salcedo said. “We made some mistakes that punished us. … We have to be better in both halves of the field so that we don’t see the type of things that we saw tonight.”
UCLA will first return home this week to face Washington on Thursday and Oregon State on Sunday.
“There are eight games left in the conference,” Salcedo said. “We’ve got three points from two road games, which isn’t bad. We know that the conference is going to be a dogfight, and we’ll be up for it on Thursday.”