UCLA men’s soccer stunned by Cal Poly in home opener

UCLA men’s soccer’s redshirt junior goalkeeper Earl Edwards kneeled
down on the edge of the goalkeeper box. His head lay buried in his hands. His hands rested atop his thighs.

Moments earlier, the ball had been drilled past him straight into the back of the net for Cal Poly’s second goal of the game and a 2-0 lead barely 25 minutes in.

“The second goal came too fast, and I think that knocked us out,” said senior midfielder Victor Munoz. “We didn’t know how to react after the second goal. We were kind of like not knowing what to do.”

It was an unexpected turn of events as unranked Cal Poly (2-1-0) went on to hammer No. 6 UCLA, 3-0.

“We didn’t have the right energy, we didn’t have the right mentality and we struggled from the get-go,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “A lot of guys felt too comfortable with what we did this past weekend (by defeating then-No. 1 Indiana) versus what we needed to do tonight.”

Cal Poly struck quickly, scoring its first goal in the 11th minute when Edwards deflected a shot-on-goal save right to an open Mustang player in the box for an easy score.

UCLA (1-1-1) wasn’t quite as lucky in its scoring opportunities.

First, the Bruins had a perfectly placed header on an early corner kick go just wide-left. Then later in the first half, senior forward Victor Chavez found himself ahead of the defense near the box and reared back for a shot attempt only to have the ball slide-tackled away from him by a trailing defender.

The contrast in fortunes between the two teams eventually became a source of frustration for the Bruins.

In the 62nd minute, freshman defender Michael Amick violently yanked down a Cal Poly player on a breakaway. Amick was immediately shown a red card and tossed from the game.

Coming off shutouts over two top-10 teams last weekend, UCLA did not expect its home opener to play out this way. But Edwards did see a lesson learned in the surprising turn of events.

“It’s a reality check,” he said. “Yeah we had a good weekend, but it’s not going to carry out to this weekend if we don’t come out with the right mentality, and it showed.”