UCLA Men’s Soccer Ends Regular Season With Win Over San Diego State
Andre Ochoa hadn’t scored a goal since Sept. 2, but facing off against his former team on his old stomping grounds Friday night brought out the best in him.
UCLA men’s soccer (10-6-1, 4-4-1 Pac-12) came through late to beat San Diego State (5-9-4, 1-6-3 Pac-12) at the SDSU Sports Deck by a score of 2-1, thanks to a game-winner by Ochoa in the 73rd minute. With the win, the Bruins have reached double-digit wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2015-2016.
Despite the end result, UCLA was not always in the driver’s seat Friday, with San Diego State boasting a much more efficient attack early on.
The Aztecs attempted 10 shots to the Bruins’ five in the first half. San Diego State was unable to get on the board, though, thanks in part to sophomore goalkeeper Nate Crockford’s five saves in the opening 34 minutes alone.
Crockford’s counterpart, Jacob Castro, only made one save in the first half, and he was unable to come through with another when the Bruins reset their attack after the break.
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Tucker Lepley, coming off a pass from junior defender Grayson Doody, fired a left-footed shot from the top of the box and curled it in to open the scoring in the 53rd minute. It marked the second game in a row that Lepley found the back of the net, but this time it was part of a winning effort.
Lepley’s goal was not the game-winner, though, since San Diego State scored an equalizer in the 56th off of a corner kick.
The Aztecs threatened to take the lead in the 72nd, but Crockford turned the high shot away for his first save of the half to keep things knotted up at 1-1.
Almost exactly a minute later, the Bruins put together a scoring chance of their own on the other end of the field. Sophomore forward Jose Contell led the attack, chasing down the ball on the right wing.
After making a cut back towards the center down near the end line, Contell sent one back in to Ochoa, who was playing his first game back at the SDSU Sports Deck since transferring to UCLA last offseason.
Ochoa one-timed the pass off his right foot and snuck it past Castro to put his new team up 2-1 with less than 17 minutes to play.
The Aztecs got a few more shots off before the final whistle, but none ended up on target. They outshot the Bruins 10-6 in the second half – making it a 20-11 advantage on the night – but their accuracy fell off as the match progressed.
As a result, UCLA held on to win behind six saves from Crockford. The Bruins moved back into a tie for third in the Pac-12 standings with the victory, even if Stanford is expected to break that tie after facing fifth-place Cal on Saturday.
UCLA will now sit back and wait for Monday’s NCAA tournament selection show. Entering the 2021 postseason with an identical 10-6-1 record, the Bruins were given the chance to host in the first round, and they took advantage by besting UC Irvine.
Given their top-30 RPI ranking and their regular season-ending victory, that outcome is once again in the cards for UCLA on Monday.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DON LIEBIG/UCLA ATHLETICS