UCLA
California
Griffin Goal Gives Bruins 1-0 Win Over #16 California
October 14, 2007 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 14, 2007
Los Angeles, Calif. - The UCLA men's soccer team earned a big 1-0 victory over 16th-ranked California on Sunday afternoon at Frank W. Marshall Field. Junior forward Maxwell Griffin scored the game-winning goal with just 2:16 left in the game, his team-leading fifth goal of the year.
Bruin defender Mike Zaher set up the goal with a steal along the left sideline. He sent a pass to Kyle Nakazawa, who found Tony Beltran open. Beltran then sent a nice through ball up the middle to Griffin, who beat Cal goalkeeper Stefan Frei for the only score of the game at 87:44.
The Bruins outshot California, 13-11, but the Golden Bears had the first scoring opportunities of the game. Just 39 seconds into the contest, Cal defender Tyler Barry had a shot that was blocked at the goal line by UCLA midfielder Michael Stephens. Andrew Jacobson took a shot at 2:04 that went high. After that initial surge, the Bruins took control in the half and created some good chances that just missed wide, at 6:20 by Beltran and at 7:32 by Nakazawa. Chance Myers had two shots go high in the half, and Nakazawa had two saved late in the period.
California nearly scored at the 73:00 mark when Javier Ayala-Hil blasted a shot that forced UCLA goalkeeper Brian Perk to leap high to tip over. On the resulting corner kick, Barry missed just wide.
UCLA goalkeeper Brian Perk made just the one save to earn the shutout, his second consecutive and fifth overall this year. Frei made four saves for Cal.
The Bruins improve their record to 5-5-2, 1-1-1 in the Pac-10. Cal drops to 7-4-1, 2-2-0 in the Pac-10.
Note: UCLA wore throwback jerseys in honor of UCLA's 1967 team, which was honored at halftime. The 1967 team was UCLA's first NCAA-sanctioned team.
 The 2007 and 1967 Bruins  |
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