Monday, October 27, 1997
Bruins extend record to 13-2 in 5-0 game against CSLA
SOCCER: UCLA senior Josh Keller celebrates as he racks up three
goals
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
Although no baseball caps were thrown onto the field on Sunday
night, the crowd at Spaulding Field knew they had witnessed a
career performance from senior defender/midfielder Josh Keller.
The UCLA men’s soccer team improved their record to 13-2 with a
5-0 victory over Cal State Los Angeles (CSLA). But the story was
Keller’s first multi-goal game – which came in his 55th career
game.
Keller opened up the scoring in the first half with a header to
the bottom left corner of the net from midfielder Nick Paneno’s
cross. A few minutes later, Keller took a feed from midfielder Tom
Poltl and barely got the ball over CSLA goalie Claine Plummer –
whose deflection trickled in for Keller’s second goal.
After goals from forwards McKinley Tennyson Jr. and Martin Bruno
– substituted in for midfielder Pete Vagenas and forward Nick
Theslof – Tennyson Jr. was brought down in the box by the
goalie.
Since Vagenas and Theslof – the Bruins’ designated penalty
kickers – were out of the game, Keller was more than glad to take
the penalty kick. When the goalie dived to the right, Keller shot
the ball to the left side to complete his first career
hat-trick.
"It felt good, it felt real good," Keller said. "Every game you
get your chances, and just today they all happened to go in. A
little bit of luck. A little bit of opportunity."
CSLA had a hat trick of its own with three-yellow cards in the
first half alone. The over-matched Golden Eagles took to violence
in the latter part of the match and even had one player ejected –
senior midfielder Sergio Zavala.
"I think we did what we had to do," Bruin head coach Sigi Schmid
said. "We knew if we played our game we would win. So maybe our
motivation and our intensity wasn’t as high as it is in some games,
but on the some token you can’t play at that high level every
game."
With tough opponents in UMass and Duke coming to town for the
UCLA Pacific Soccer Classic this weekend, the Bruins might want to
regain that high level soon.