By Ajaybir Behniwal Bruin sports senior staff
abehniwal@media.ucla.edu On Sunday, the Bruins’ men’s
soccer team found itself on the opposite end of a tradition that
they slowly began to grow accustomed to. After four consecutive
victories by means of shutouts, the Bruins found themselves unable
to claim victory, let alone score a goal, against an Oregon State
team that has now gone 10 straight games without a loss. The UCLA
squad lost their spot atop the Pac-10 standings and will have to
finish the season off with more victories in close games if they
hope to claim their fourth straight Pac-10 Championship, and the
second straight under coach Jorge Salcedo. Prior to the game on
Sunday, Salcedo and the Bruins had higher ambitions for Pac-10
play. “Our goal for this year is to go undefeated,”
Salcedo had said. Another accomplishment that the Bruins were
shooting for was a pair of victories on their trip north. Plans for
that, however, were stopped early Sunday against a solid Oregon
State Beavers team. Prior to the first and only goal of the game
from either team, in the 10th minute of play, the Bruin defense,
with goalkeeper Eric Reed, had stopped all their opponents from
scoring for 401 minutes, 14 seconds. That run without allowing a
goal was not the only such run the Bruins have been able to amass
this year. Before losing to Ohio State, the UCLA defense allowed no
goals in a period of 324 minutes and 16 seconds, which spanned over
a total of five games, three of which resulted in Bruin shutout
victories. Although the Bruins weren’t able to score against
the Oregon State team, it wasn’t the first time the Beavers
had gotten the best of the Bruins. It was the first time the
then-sixth-ranked Bruins had been held to no goals in a game this
season, with the last such occurrence dating back to Nov. 7 of last
year, against none other but the Beavers of Oregon State, in a
match played in Corvallis, Ore. In the 2004 season, the Bruins
defeated the Beavers 3-1 and hope to have a similar successful
outing when Oregon State travels back to Westwood for their second
meeting of the season.
INJURY UPDATE: Junior Kiel McClung was finally able to put on
his jersey and start his first regular-season game of 2005. McClung
started on Friday night against a Washington Husky squad that the
Bruins defeated 1-0, with the game-winning goal coming from Patrick
Ianni. The Bruin defender severely sprained his ankle in the second
week of this year’s preseason play and had to wait several
weeks before finally being able to play again. Salcedo made sure to
be patient with the upperclassman’s injury in order to
prevent any further damage to his ankle. In Sunday’s game
against Oregon State, McClung recorded one of the Bruins’
nine shots.
COMING UP NEXT: UCLA stays in Southern
California through the week, as they host Cal State Northridge on
Friday and then travel down the 405 freeway to play UC San Diego on
Sunday.