Like so often happens in soccer, there was a scrum in the box, followed by a ball clearance.
Then more than 3,000 fans, who had held their breath while UCLA was on the doorstep of scoring against USC, exhaled when the ball floated away from the Trojan goal.
But as eyeballs moved back up the field, referee Jessie Johnson emerged from the mess of players, whistle blowing, hand in the air, pointing toward midfield, to indicate a goal.
Drake Stadium fell quiet for a moment.
Then it erupted.
“I was right on the line,” junior forward Kristina Larsen said. “I thought it went in, but they kept playing. I just put my body in front of it and hit it back in.”
That goal was all UCLA (21-0-2) needed to put away rival USC (16-5-2) and earn a little more redemption for last year’s 2-1 loss to the Trojans in the College Cup.
This time around, it was the Bruins who cut short the Trojan’s season with an NCAA Tournament win.
“I said early on that it’s a tough game to have in their third round, to play your conference rival and the defending national champions ““ it was an extremely difficult draw,” coach Jill Ellis said. “But this team weathered it. They put on a special show tonight.”
Indeed they did. UCLA played much better Saturday night against USC than at any point in their second-round matchup against San Diego a week ago.
The goal came off a nicely struck corner kick by junior defender Lauren Wilmoth at the 12:19 mark of the first half. As the ball came down, it hit off the body of senior midfielder McCall Zerboni, and havoc ensued. A USC defender deflected it and got a foot on the ball while standing close to or just inside the goal line. There was no goal signal, and a defender tried to clear it. But the clearance attempt struck Larsen’s hip on its way out of the box and crossed the goal line. USC made another attempt to clear the ball, but this time, as the ball headed toward midfield, the whistle blew.
But the game-winning goal was only one of several iconic images from Saturday night.
In the 65th minute, Larsen had the ball deep in the corner of USC territory. Overwhelmed by defenders, she dropped it off behind her to senior forward Christina DiMartino, who had an open shooting lane from about 15 feet. She sent a beautiful bending shot toward the goal that just nicked off the left side of the crossbar.
But it was really the defense that came up huge yet again for the Bruins. USC got off only six shots to UCLA’s 17, as the Bruins’ back four players stifled a potent Trojan offense and shut down Olympic gold medalist Amy Rodriguez.
The Trojans didn’t have a solid scoring opportunity all night, but in the 76th minute, the Trojans had the ball down in a UCLA corner of the field. As one of the Trojans waited for someone to get to the middle, a sea of blue swarmed the yellow jersey, took the ball, and made a quick touch pass out of the corner to a waiting Bruin who cleared the ball.
“Our back four has been amazing, especially in this game,” Zerboni said. “To let a great team, the reigning champions, not score on us, that just says so much about them.”
“They’re just a brick wall,” Larsen said.
At the end of the contest, both Bruins and Trojans came out to midfield to thank the fans and wave goodbye. For some like Rodriguez, this was the end of a wonderful career, filled with everything, including a national championship.
But there are seven Bruin seniors whose careers will last at least one more game. And though they are all too familiar with getting to the national quarterfinals, none of them have a title yet.
Said a smiling DiMartino after the game, “One more game before the Final Four.”