Bruins dodge past difficulties in victory against Fresno State

Monday, September 29, 1997

Bruins dodge past difficulties in victory against Fresno
State

SOCCER: Team plays bravely despite missed opportunities and
Victorine’s knee injury

By Vytas Mazeika

Daily Bruin Staff

Often in sports the final score does not appropriately reflect
the story of the match.

Although the UCLA men’s soccer team defeated Fresno State by a
narrow margin of 2-0 on a scorching Sunday, the final score could
easily have become more lopsided.

"I think this was one of the best games we’ve played all
season." third-year Bruin forward Seth George said. "(The match)
was pretty easy, but we need to put away our chances. All those
breakaways and so many missed chances. The game could have been
7-0."

George was not the culprit in the Bruins’ (7-1) many missed
opportunities. George, who continued his assault on opposing
defenses, was largely responsible for UCLA’s two goals – scoring
the first at the 8:40 mark of the first half and drawing a penalty
kick on a breakaway with about 15 minutes left in the match.

Yet the Bruins could not put away the Bulldogs (5-4-1). After
George scored his team and league’s leading 7th goal of the season,
the rest of the Bruins would sneak through Fresno State’s porous
defense again and again. But not one single player wearing a UCLA
uniform was capable of reaching the back of the net except during
Pete Vagenas’ penalty kick goal.

UCLA coach Sigi Schmid pointed out that the Bulldogs’ "flat"
defense allowed the Bruins a great many scoring opportunities. A
"flat" defense plays the defenders in a straight line and is very
susceptible to the long ball.

"My impression was of a fairly even game," Bulldogs coach Dave
Chesler said. "But their attack was definitely more dangerous than
ours …. We play flat (defense). All it takes is two or three long
balls and you’re in trouble."

Sunday’s match was not all good news for the Bruins though. Near
the end of the first half, second-year mid-fielder Sasha Victorine
suffered a knee injury. Victorine was quickly substituted, and by
the end of the match he stood near the bench with crutches under
both arms to take some pressure away from the knee. An MRI will be
done today to evaluate the seriousness of the situation.

Victorine, who played last season with a shoulder separation
that required off-season surgery, is a major contributor to the
Bruin offense. After the match Schmid tried to fend off some of his
worries about Victorine’s misfortune with praise for the poise the
rest of the team showed after the injury.

"I thought overall we pretty much had the game in control,"
Schmid said. "And having to play the second half without Sasha
(Victorine) basically changes our game a lot because he’s an
important part of our game. I thought we handled that fairly well
too."

The men’s soccer team now hopes Victorine’s knee injury is not
too serious. Otherwise, every single player might have to dig down
for stronger efforts the rest of the season – efforts such as those
the Bruins’ showed Sunday at Spaulding Field.