Bruins capture title in MetLife classic by beating St. Louis

Monday, October 28, 1996

M. SOCCER:

UCLA wins tourney after three-year drought; win streak continues
at eight gamesBy Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

Well, the UCLA men’s soccer team and the UCLA MetLife Classic
are getting along just fine these days, thank you very much.

The Bruins captured the weekend tournament for the first time
since 1993, clinching the title with a 3-2 victory over St. Louis
on Sunday at Spaulding Field and an earlier 2-0 victory over Oregon
State.

"(The championship) is important because we want to stay in a
winning rhythm and a winning habit," UCLA head coach Sigi Schmid
said.

That winning habit is going to be tough to break as the pair of
victories ran the Bruin’s record to 13-3 and extended their winning
streak to eight games.

Sunday’s game against the Billikens epitomized the growth of
this team, for after falling behind 1-0 early, they rallied to take
a 2-1 lead on goals by Nick Theslof and Sasha Victorine.

With the game seemingly in hand for the Bruins late in the
second half, the Billikens netted the equalizer on a corner kick.
Instead of fading in the clutch, as they did in early games against
Fresno St. and California, UCLA came through with the decisive goal
with eight minutes to play.

"(Sunday) was a really pivotal game because of the way it went
with the scoring," Schmid said. "This was a game that we lost
earlier in the year. When another team scored, we had trouble
finding the back of the net. Tonight, they took the lead, we
scored. They tied it up and we still showed that we could
score."

And what a gem that final score was, with sophomore Tom Poltl
collecting a pass from Martin Bruno, dribbling through two
defenders and banging home his fifth goal of the year.

"It was really big because we were tied and I hadn’t been coming
through during the season," Poltl said. "Finally, I got my first
game-winner."

It was the tale of two halves for the UCLA men’s soccer team
against Oregon State in the first game of the MetLife Classic
Friday night.

After a first half that was fought to a 0-0 standstill, the
Bruins rallied to put together two goals in the second half, giving
them a 2-0 victory over the Beavers.

"They’re a difficult team and they make it very difficult to
beat them," Schmid said. "They play pretty close to the vest. We
came out with a lot of emotion in our league games, and today was a
little more of ‘let’s get through this one.’"

At the start of the game, the Bruin offense was colder than the
frigid winds at Spaulding Field. With the Beavers’ massive defense
putting strikers Nick Theslof and Tom Poltl on lockdown, holding
them without a shot in the first half, UCLA struggled to get on
track.

"In the first half, we played too many balls in the air," Schmid
said. "That played too much into their hands, where they could head
things out."

In the 56th minute of play, George collected a ball, beat two
defenders to the middle and blistered a shot from 25 yards out with
a defender in his back pocket.

The final goal was tallied by reserve midfielder Chester
Goodson, the first of his career.

The shutout was preserved by a strong Bruin defense, anchored by
Tahj Jakins, who became the third player in tournament history to
be named back-to-back defensive MVP.

STEVE KIM/Daily Bruin

Sasha Victorine (10) plays defense in Friday night’s game
against Oregon State.