UCLA men’s soccer comes up empty in senior night match against Stanford
Senior midfielder Riley Ferch covers his face in defeat following UCLA’s 0-1 loss to Stanford. Ferch celebrated Senior Night with friends and family at Wallis Annenberg Stadium on Sunday afternoon. (Vivian Xu/Daily Bruin senior staff)
men's soccer
| No. 5 Stanford | 1 |
| UCLA | 0 |
By Lexi Grimes
Oct. 24, 2022 3:04 p.m.
This post was updated Oct. 25 at 9:13 p.m.
The Bruins were unable to secure a Senior Night victory as family, friends and fans filled Wallis Annenberg Stadium with the largest crowd of the season.
UCLA men’s soccer (8-5-1, 3-3-1 Pac-12) capped off its homestand with a 0-1 loss to No. 5 Stanford (9-1-4, 3-1-3) in its last home game of the regular season. When the two teams faced off earlier this season, the match resulted in a draw. Redshirt senior forward Kevin Diaz said the Bruins have a history of playing close games against the Cardinal.
“(Coach Ryan) Jorden gives us great tactics, especially against Stanford,” Diaz said. “We always keep them close, and next time hopefully, we get a goal in the back of the net.”
The two teams were evenly matched for the majority of the game. Stanford was the first team to record a shot on goal in the 10th minute but only logged one more shot in the first half. Diaz recorded UCLA’s sole shot of the first half in the 43rd minute of the game.
In the second half of the match, sophomore defender Aaron Edwards had two early shots, but neither found the back of the net, with the first blocked by Stanford goalie Matt Frank and the second ball launched high over the net. At the 70-minute mark, after a few close calls, the Cardinal was able to score against the Bruins with a well-placed header. Despite two more shots by UCLA, the Bruins were unable to find the equalizer.
Redshirt senior midfielder Jose Sosa said the squad has a pattern of not capitalizing on solid chances, which costs it wins by the end of the contest.
“We’ve had these results in the past where we’ve dominated games,” Sosa said. “Same thing happened against Washington here, we created chances, and we just didn’t take most of them, and we got punished for that.”
Although this wasn’t the result UCLA was hoping for, Jorden said he was pleased with how his team was able to compete against one of the best teams in the nation.
“I’m super proud of the guys and how we dictated the game,” Jorden said. “The result just keeps the guys motivated to continue to work to be just a sliver better in moments, but I think in general I couldn’t be more pleased by the work that we put in, and we had a lot of control in the game, which was good.”
As most of the Bruins were looking forward to their final stretch of four road games, Sosa took a minute to reflect on what might be his last game at Wallis Annenberg Stadium.
“I’m going to miss this place a lot,” Sosa said. “I’m not going to take anything for granted, especially for today. I enjoyed every minute of it, just disappointed to come out on the wrong side of the result.”
UCLA will continue its season on the road Saturday at 9 a.m. against Rutgers.
