Two goals in 81 seconds put the Bruins up over the Buckeyes – and this time, the Bruins held on for the win.

UCLA men’s soccer (5-3-4, 2-2-2 Big Ten) took down No. 2 Ohio State (9-1-2, 4-1-1) on Friday night at Wallis Annenberg Stadium in the Buckeyes’ first loss of the season. After conceding in the 51st minute, the Bruins responded with back-to-back goals for the 2-1 victory.

Preceding an assist on graduate student midfielder Edrey Caceres’ goal, sophomore defender Philip Naef sent in multiple crosses as he drove to the endline, each sending the ball through the middle of the box and sparking chances.

“We know that Philip, he’s a very important player for us. Every time that he’s on the field, we know how dangerous he is. He’s always looking to take people one versus one,” said redshirt senior forward Jose Contell. “We love that because we know that he’s going to kill that guy, and he always does.”

In the 70th minute, following a tackle near the halfway line from senior defender Pablo Greenlee, Naef sent a cross to Caceres, who nailed his shot into the back of the net.

“When I was coming onto the pitch, second half, I was talking to Robles (assistant coach Jose Robles). He was like, ‘Just get in the box, and then you’re going to score.’ And then I remember that. I just sprinted,” Caceres said. “I just saw the ball coming towards me, and that was it.”

Tied at one apiece, freshman forward Artem Vovk picked up a long ball and chipped it over the goalkeeper and off the crossbar. It fell for Contell, who controlled the ball off his chest before shooting it into the center of the goal to put the Bruins up 2-1. Contell celebrated with a back flip before his teammates surrounded him.

“After Edrey scored the first goal, the energy of the team went up amazingly. The energy inside the field, you could feel everyone was truly believing that we were going to score the second one,” Contell said. “It was just a matter of getting one chance, getting one shot.”

The Buckeyes – down in a game for just the second time this season and the first since Aug. 22 – fired off seven shots in the final 20 minutes.

But the Bruins held strong, with defenders making blocks and sophomore goalkeeper Wyatt Nelson recording two saves.

Coach Ryan Jorden added that holding onto a lead late had been a focus during practice in the week.

Ohio State – having scored two goals in the first 15 minutes against Michigan a week ago – started strong against UCLA, leading possession in the first 10 minutes.

“Good teams are going to try to punch you in the face in the first 10 minutes and see if they can win the game,” Jorden said. “We knew we’d have to repel a few things. We knew we’d have to manage the game a little bit to get to a place where we could pass the ball the way that we wanted to. We got through that phase.”

Both teams made it to halftime knotted at zero, before the Buckeyes came out and scored in the 51st minute.

The shot at the top of the box from midfielder Ashton Bilow slid past Nelson into the bottom left corner of the net, putting the Bruins in recently familiar territory.

“The good thing was that when we conceded, you didn’t see any frustration or ‘Oh, here it goes again.’ I thought our guys’ response was incredible,” Jorden said. “The pace of the game that we played at immediately coming out of it, I thought, was really, really high.”

No team had held the Buckeyes to one goal in the past five games – nearly a month’s time.

Now sitting fifth in the Big Ten standings, UCLA will head out for its final away games of the regular season against Rutgers and No. 9 Maryland.