Men’s soccer breaks through Aztec defense to score 4-0 win over SDSU
Freshman forward Stephen Payne converted a 75th-minute penalty kick – which he earned himself – on Monday night for the first goal of his UCLA career in the Bruins’ 4-0 victory over San Diego State. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By TuAnh Dam
Oct. 13, 2015 7:18 a.m.
For 60 minutes, the shots sailed around the goal, hitting the crossbar or being swatted away by swarming Aztec defenders.
Then the floodgates opened.
After an hour of watching its chances narrowly miss, the UCLA men’s soccer team (6-5-0, 2-1-0) finally capitalized – not just once, but four times – and routed San Diego State (5-4-2, 0-3-0) 4-0 for its second straight conference win.
“We had control for the first 10, 15 minutes,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “We just couldn’t reward ourselves.”
The Bruins attacked from kickoff – often forcing all 11 Aztec players into their own half. The aggressive game plan produced plenty of early shots, but SDSU’s defense forced three offsides and drew two yellow cards – on UCLA midfielders senior Jordan Vale and junior Gage Zerboni.
Leading scorers freshman midfielder Jose Hernandez and sophomore forward Seyi Adekoya led the Bruins’ attack with nimble ball handling and crisp passing, but the Aztecs held them scoreless well past halftime.
Then, in the 60th minute, Adekoya broke through the SDSU defense and put the Bruins on the board off an assist from senior defender Javan Torre. The sophomore midfielder beat his defender and snuck a shot past the goalie to earn his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
“It was frustrating to see those chances go by us,” Torre said. “All those misses, but we had to keep going to get that one goal in.”
Adekoya continued pressing the attack – less than a minute later, a foul on an SDSU defender brought up a penalty kick, which Hernandez knocked in for his first goal of the night.
His second goal followed just 20 seconds later after a poor clear from the Aztecs. Later on, fellow freshman Stephen Payne converted another penalty kick for his first goal, pushing the final score to 4-0, the Bruins’ most lopsided win yet in what has been a trying season.
“No one expected what happened earlier in the season to happen when those losses started to pile up,” Payne said. “But they woke us up and made us go out and get results.”
The victory gives UCLA two conference wins and six points in the Pac-12. But the Bruins know that their past wins don’t carry as much weight as their losses.
“We haven’t proven anything yet,” Torre said. “We haven’t forgotten those five losses. We carry that chip on our shoulders when we go out on the pitch.”
UCLA begins preparation for Friday’s tough matchup against No. 3 Stanford (9-1-1), in which the Bruins and the Cardinal will duel for control of the conference standings.
