Team wins close one over St. Mary’s

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Bruin midfielder
Shaun Tsakiris kicks the ball past St. Mary’s Nick
Marcum to score the game-winning goal in the second half of
play.

By Jim Guthrie
Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 1 UCLA men’s soccer team had to claw its way back,
but it still managed to get the 3-2 victory over St. Mary’s
at Drake Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

After Thursday’s thrilling win over Santa Clara,
Sunday’s game against lowly St. Mary’s was supposed to
be a blowout. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the Gaels as the
Bruins found themselves trailing 2-1 in the first half.

“I was very frustrated with the first half,” said
head coach Todd Saldaña. “I brought that up to them and
told them they were playing at a casual style and not getting the
job done.”

That was all the motivation the Bruins (8-0) needed as they
stormed out of the locker room to collect two goals before the 60th
minute.

The Bruins led the game early. During the seventh minute
sophomore midfielder Jimmy Frazelle headed the ball up to senior
McKinley Tennyson, who exploded by a St. Mary’s defender.
Tennyson then waited for Gael goalkeeper Kellan Wilson to leave the
net before sending a shot into the top of the net.

The Bruins didn’t have a chance to savor their lead as a
quick foul just outside the box in the eighth minute set up a free
kick for Gaels midfielder Eric Reed. Reed took the kick and punched
it in to the left, past diving goalie D.J. Countess.

UCLA could not convert on a series of shots, and a cross over
the middle by Gaels midfielder Oscar Bueno fed the ball right to
defender Nick Marcum, who fired it past Countess. That gave St.
Mary’s a one-goal lead at the break.

“We came out and got that first goal and then I felt we
kind of backed off,” Bruin freshman Adolfo Gregorio said.
“They got two goals on us that they shouldn’t even have
got in.”

The second goal also marked the entry of senior Shaun Tsakiris,
the hero from Thursday night’s game. The midfielder had been
hampered by back injuries and it was not certain if he would play
at all during the game.

“I’m about 60 or 70 percent right now,”
Tsakiris said. “I know we wanted to rest some players but it
is always good to get a win.”

The Bruins roared out of the gates in the second half. At the
54th minute, Tsakiris sent a corner kick flying into the box and
senior Scot Thompson managed to get a head on the ball and send it
past Wilson to the left.

After close misses by freshmen Leonard Griffin and Matt Taylor,
Tsakiris struck again. Taking a ball in the middle of the box and
evading a defender, he punched the ball into the right of the
goal.

That was all the Bruins needed.

Countess clamped down after that and the Bruins were the only
team to make any offensive gains.

The Bruins showed they can stay up, even after an emotional win
such as one they had against Santa Clara.

“I think it is good to win two games in a week,”
Saldaña said. “We will certainly have weeks like that
where you have to play a Washington and an Oregon State and you
have to get up for both games. It has to become a habit for
us.”

Though the team has looked impressive in the early going, the
Bruins have yet to show the intensity of last year’s squad
and have seemed lackluster at times since the Indiana game. With
the No. 1 ranking, opponents having been gearing up for the games
and the Bruins will have to work on their focus in the coming
weeks.

“The last couple of games we haven’t been playing
the best we can,” Gregorio said. “We can play a lot
better so hopefully we can just get our act together and play
well.”