With the Pac-10 title on the line this past weekend, the Bruins
did what they had to do. No more. No less.
On a chilly Friday night in Seattle, Wash., the UCLA men’s
soccer team recorded a dramatic come-from-behind 2-1 victory over
Washington to clinch its third consecutive Pac-10 title.
The win brought the Bruins full circle, avenging their 1-0 home
loss to the Huskies on the opening weekend of conference play early
in October.
But with hardly any time to celebrate, UCLA followed its
conference-clinching win with a very unexpected loss to Oregon
State on Sunday, giving the Beavers their first conference win of
the year.
Though the Oregon State loss may have bearing on UCLA’s
NCAA tournament ranking, the Bruins pointed to their win against
the Huskies as proof of their readiness for the postseason.
“We had our heads up,” freshman forward Kamani Hill
said of Friday’s win. “We knew that we could come back
from one down and win. We’ve come back and won a lot of times
this season.
“Our team’s character is coming together. We battle
to the very end.”
If anything, the match would have appeared to be a defensive
stalemate, with both the Huskies and the Bruins posting 16 shutouts
between them this year.
But the Bruins found themselves in an all-too-familiar position
going into halftime, trailing 1-0 on a looping 24-yard shot by
Husky midfielder Ely Allen.
“There was a little bit of frustration going down a
goal,” sophomore defender Brandon Owens said. “We just
had to look at ourselves and just say that we weren’t going
to be giving up anything else.”
Coming out of halftime, the Bruins appeared to have renewed
vigor.
“After the half, we started to put more pressure and got
tighter on the guys in the midfield,” UCLA coach Jorge
Salcedo said. “Once we did we fairly dominated the
game.”
The Bruins came out and controlled the second half, outshooting
Washington 8-4 and reversing the Huskies 9-4 advantage in the first
half.
Senior forward Ahmed Khalil started off the scoring for the
Bruins at the 62:29 mark, redirecting a quick skipping cross from
junior midfielder Jordan Harvey into the far right of the goal.
Later in the half, UCLA secured the win when sophomore
midfielder Benny Feilhaber drilled a shot from the top of the
penalty box that found the right-hand corner of the goal in the
79th minute.
“It was just a matter of time before we scored a
goal,” Owens said. “We knew they couldn’t hold us
back the whole game. It just wouldn’t happen.”
With the Pac-10 title in hand despite the loss to Oregon State,
the Bruins are confident as they await the beginning of the NCAA
tournament in two weeks.
“Our schedule worked out perfectly, being able to come up
here to Washington and see if we were battle tested and ready to
play in the playoffs,” Salcedo said.
The Bruins certainly showed they could battle with the best of
them. But the loss to Oregon State leads to questions that UCLA
hopes it can erase in its two upcoming games this week against the
University of San Diego and UC Davis.