Jorge Salcedo started walking.
And walking. And walking. And walking.
Eventually, the UCLA men’s soccer coach reached his team on the far side of midfield as it huddled together in preparation for the second half of its game against Cal Poly.
Salcedo quickly turned around, making the long, cold walk back to the bench after his brief meeting on the pitch, but his words lasted all night.
“Basically what I told the guys was that I wanted to see them stamp their mark on the game right from the get-go the second half,” Salcedo said. “There are some times when I think the guys need an extra push or a little more emotion, try to stir up the fact that we needed a reaction from the first half to have a better start to the second half.”
UCLA (11-8-1) immediately took control of the scoreless game, using a dominant second half to shut down Cal Poly (11-5-5) and claim a 2-0 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
After ending the first half with a flurry of chances, including three corner kicks in the span of just over two minutes, the Bruins emerged from halftime with even more urgency, spreading the Mustang defense thin. In the 54th minute, sophomore forward Abu Danladi nearly found midfielder Jose Hernandez, the newly-crowned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, flying down the right side of the penalty box, but Cal Poly goalie Wade Hamilton got there just in time.
Over the next five minutes, UCLA would have another three near-misses before senior midfielder Jordan Vale headed a corner kick from freshman midfielder Jackson Yueill past a leaping Hamilton.
“I think it was the fourth or fifth corner kick,” Vale said. “The ones before, we hadn’t quite gotten the delivery right from Jackson and the runs were a little bit off, so I was really trying to focus on maneuvering my way into a good spot. Jackson just had to hit it perfect – which he did – and I had a little laugh, little snicker because I knew he had hit perfect and all I had to do was finish.”
The Bruins continued to hold the lion’s share of possession, sending wave after wave of attackers at the Mustangs. As opportunities piled up for UCLA, the team never let up on the pressure, exploiting a tiring defense.
“Even though we didn’t get scored on, we felt like we lost, figuratively, in the first half, and we wanted to win the second half,” said redshirt junior goalie Juan Cervantes. “We had to get the first goal, but once we got the first we knew the second would follow.”
For as many chances as UCLA had, though, its second goal came courtesy of a major Cal Poly blunder. In the 77th minute, with the Bruins holding a tight one-goal lead, an innocent cross was gently tapped into the Mustangs’ goal by one of their own players.
It was the final anticlimactic dagger that completely deflated the visitors.
Danladi would go on to narrowly miss two breakaway chances, knocking the ball off the right goal post both times, but UCLA already had all the cushion it needed.
The Bruins will head north for a second round matchup with No. 11-seed Seattle (17-3-1) Sunday night. The Redhawks haven’t lost since early October, and the two teams did not face each other during the regular season.
“Seattle is a good team, obviously a seeded team in the tournament. It’ll be a big game for both programs,” Salcedo said. “We take a lot of pride in the tournament and we’re excited that we won the first round game, but we’re definitely not satisfied. We’re gonna go up there and try to win a game.”