The Bruins may be just one game into the conference schedule, but they currently sit atop the Pac-12 standings.
UCLA men’s soccer (5-3-0, 1-0-0) went on the road and took down California (4-3-2, 0-1-0) 2-1 on Thursday afternoon.
UCLA took a 1-0 lead in their last two games against CSUN and UC Santa Barbara, and they did the same against Cal. The Golden Bears tied the game, but instead of losing like they did against the Matadors and Gauchos, coach Jorge Salcedo said his team learned from their previous mistakes to change the end result.
“It’s a great feeling to start the Pac-12 season with a road win against a very good Cal team,” Salcedo said. “Each of the two previous two games, we ended up losing after being up. … This time our guys were really resilient and having great reactions to the game being tied.”
Sophomore defender Brandon Terwege scored UCLA’s first goal, an 18th-minute header off a corner send from freshman forward Matt Hundley.
“There was a 10-minute period where we finally gained the momentum,” Terwege said. “Finally, we got an opportunity. It was a great cross, I was just in the right place at the right time, and I put it in the back of the net.”
The score was Terwege’s first of the season after the defender started all eight games.
The Bruins brought the lead into halftime, and after the Golden Bears peppered freshman goalkeeper Justin Garces with six shots to start the second half, Cal finally buried an equalizer in the 63rd minute.
The tie lasted for only four minutes, and was broken when sophomore forward Milan Iloski received a pass from freshman midfielder Frankie Amaya and launched the game-winning shot from the left edge of the box over the goalkeeper’s head.
“I saw I had an opportunity to go at someone one-on-one and I just was aggressive and confident in my abilities,” Iloski said. “It ended up being the game-winning goal, but I’m really happy we got the three points.”
The game against Cal was Iloski’s second appearance of the year, after the sophomore missed eight weeks after getting surgery. He has already taken eight shots and scored a goal, but Iloski said he is still working to get back to 100 percent.
“I’m still getting into a rhythm,” Iloski said. “It takes time getting back in a groove and things, but every day I’m going to get better, this was just the tip of my iceberg.”
With Iloski rejoining the lineup, Salcedo now has another goal-scoring forward at his disposal, something the coach said is not easy to deal with.
“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Salcedo said. “Having the attacking quality we have obviously is a blessing, but finding a way to put them all on the field in a system and in some type of organization that we can still be effective and productive is a challenge.”
The Bruins were able to turn a corner kick opportunity into a goal, but they shut down the Golden Bears on the other end as well. Cal did not take a single corner kick in the game, something Terwege said was integral in UCLA’s defensive game plan.
“We knew that coming into the game, that was going to be a way for them to create chances on their attacking set pieces,” Terwege said. “It’s always good for our defense and always good to start attacks for us, and that’s what we want to do.”
UCLA got the win, but they were unable to record their first clean sheet since Sept. 8 against Maryland.
The Bruins will get back on the field Sunday against the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto, California at 5 p.m.