UCLA splits in back-to-back games

  CATHERINE JUN Hermann Trophy candidate McKinley
Tennyson Jr. goes after a ball in Friday’s 4-1 victory
over Oregon State. UCLA d. Oregon State 4-1 Washington d.
UCLA 3-2

By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff

For the first time this season, the UCLA men’s soccer team
showed its youth.

The No. 2 Bruins (9-2, 1-2 Pac-10), who typically start six
freshman, became complacent after taking a 2-0 second half lead
over Washington (9-3, 3-0 Pac-10) at Drake Stadium on Sunday. With
UCLA’s guard down, the Huskies roared back and eventually won
the game 3-2.

The game winner was scored with just 30 seconds left in the game
by Washington midfielder Benjamin Somoza.

With 40 seconds left, Husky Mark Hogenhout fired a shot just
outside the goal box that was deflected by a Bruin defender. The
ball fell to the wide open Somoza, who beat UCLA keeper DJ Countess
to the back post.

Bruin senior Ryan Lee felt his younger teammates lost their
focus mentally in the second half.

“I think we are a young team and it takes 90 minutes of
mentally being able to stay in the game, not so much
physically,” he said.

  CATHERINE JUN Freshman forward Matt
Taylor battles for the ball against an Oregon State
defender in Friday night’s match. “It’s tough to
play 90 minutes and these (young) guys have a lot of growing up to
do.”

UCLA jumped out to the early lead on goals by seniors McKinley
Tennyson, Jr. in the eighth minute and Shaun Tsakiris in the 51st
minute.

After Tsakiris scored on a penalty kick, UCLA head coach Todd
Saldaña felt his Bruins thought the game was over.

“We played a really good first half and we were very much
in control,” he said. “In regards to the physical and
soccer aspect of the game, I think we out-classed them.

“But in the second half I think we thought that the game
had been won,” he added.

The game was not over; there were some 40 minutes left to be
played after Tsakiris’s goal and the Huskies used each minute
on the attack.

With the ball constantly in UCLA’s end of the field,
Washington fired 15 shots on goal in the second half. They had just
three in the first half.

“It’s about not letting down and having a lot of
heart,” said Somoza, who also had two assists in the game.
“They went up two-nil and we thought we were still in
it.”

“They totally took us out of our game in the first half.
Guys weren’t playing the way they normally play,” he
added. “We got our act together in the second half and took
it to them.”

Washington scored goals in the 53rd and 57th minutes to tie the
score.

It was almost as if UCLA was going through the motions in the
second half.

“I didn’t feel that we treated it like it was do or
die,” Saldaña said. “I think we went out and
played, but not like it was the end of the world if we lost.

“I don’t think you can ever approach a half of a
game the way we did,” he added.

Somoza felt UCLA got tired in the second half, allowing for
Washington to come back.

Saldaña didn’t cite fatigue for the second half
meltdown, instead saying the team’s youth and lack of
preparation played roles in the defeat.

“We still have a very young team and now we are finally
being tested,” he said. “Our matches previously with
San Diego State, USF, Santa Barbara and St. Mary’s
weren’t challenging enough.

“I think those games didn’t prepare us at all for
the Stanford game and the match today.”

. . .

In UCLA’s other game over the weekend, the Bruins beat
Oregon State 4-1 on Friday at Spaulding Field. Tsakiris and
Tennyson scored two goals apiece.

Tsakiris and Tennyson each scored the first of their goals in
the first half, and a few minutes later Beaver Ryan Smith scored
his first goal of the season to cut the Bruin lead to 2-1. In the
49th and 52nd minutes, however, Tennyson and Tsakiris scored again
to put the game away.