Monday, October 13, 1997
Bruins bully around Matadors, Toreros
SOCCER: UCLA holds USD, CSUN scoreless to continue shutout
streak
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA men’s soccer team defense is usually overlooked because
of the offensive prowess of players such as junior forward Seth
George and his 10 goals. But the Bruins’ almost impenetrable
defense has strung together a streak of five shutouts over the past
two weeks.
No. 2 UCLA has outscored their opponents by a margin of 15-0
over the five-game stretch. Coming into Thursday, UCLA had beaten
up on Fresno State (2-0), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (3-0) and San
Jose State (3-0).
Then in Thursday night’s match, UCLA (11-1, 2-0 Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation) survived a rough match against the University of
San Diego Toreros (5-4-1) by a score of 3-0. Two players were
ejected (McKinley Tennyson Jr. for the Bruins) and three yellow
cards were handed out. The Bruins continued their stifling defense
with a dominant 4-0 victory over the Cal State Northridge Matadors
(2-10, 1-2 MPSF) on Sunday.
"I think we played a lot better tonight (against Northridge),"
Bruin coach Sigi Schmid said. "I think our passing was sharper. And
for sure in the second half with better luck or a little better
finishing, we could have had six or seven (goals)."
Junior midfielder Tom Poltl scored four of UCLA’s seven goals in
their past two victories. Poltl’s scoring outburst came as a
pleasant surprise considering that in 10 previous starts this
season, he had been held without a single goal by the
opposition.
"I was getting a hard time from all the players that I hadn’t
score yet," Poltl said. "I was one of the few starters that hadn’t
scored, and finally in the weekend I caught up to half the
guys."
Though Poltl’s success over the weekend was unexpected, the
solid performances from senior goalkeeper Matt Reis and true
freshman Nick Rimando were not. Reis made a career high seven saves
versus San Diego while notching his third solo shutout of the
season. At the same time, Rimando has yet to allow a goal in his
three starts.
"We’ve had history here at UCLA where there have been shutout
streaks for long times," Rimando said. "One thing (Schmid) told us
was that he wants another streak and we’re trying as hard as we can
to get it to him."
Schmid has rotated Reis and Rimando for part of the first half
of the season in order to provide Rimando with valuable playing
time. Schmid is a firm believer in the philosophy that to be
successful in the collegiate level, a team must have two dependable
goalkeepers.
"I think Matt Reis has played very well," Schmid said. "(Reis)
is our starting goalkeeper. But (Rimando) today came up with a
great save. It’s the kind of save that you need goalkeepers to make
when the score is 1-0. I think we’ve got two very capable
goalkeepers and I think everyone knows that now."
Considering UCLA’s current shutout streak, it would be hard to
believe how other teams could not know.
WYNN RUJIRAVIRIYAPINYO
UCLA forward Martin Bruno.