It was a homecoming of sorts for a couple players on the No. 15 UCLA men’s soccer team this weekend when the team went on the road to take on Washington and Oregon State.
On Friday, sophomore midfielder Kelyn Rowe returned to his home state of Washington as the Huskies hosted the Bruins.
UCLA and Rowe were rude guests and cruised past Washington in a 4-1 win.
Rowe struck first in the 11th minute as he and junior forward Chandler Hoffman performed a give-and-go that positioned Rowe at the top of the box. Rowe proceeded to curl the ball into the upper 90 to put the Bruins up a goal.
Sophomore defender Patrick Matchett played offensive roles in the next two goals. In the 22nd minute, Matchett crossed the ball far post to find junior midfielder/forward Ryan Hollingshead perfectly, who put the ball in the back of the net with his right foot.
“Against Washington, we scored four great goals and our second goal was a really good buildup,” coach Jorge Salcedo said. “We connected about 17 passes prior to scoring with a great goal from Ryan Hollingshead.”
The Huskies scored their goal when a shot rebounded off the crossbar to the feet of Quinton Beasley, who finished the play.
Matchett recorded his second assist of the night when he chipped a ball to senior forward/midfielder Eder Arreola who then put a shot on goal that was blocked. The ball rebounded back to Arreola, who finished what he started to put the game at 3-1.
“We’ve incorporated our outside backs in our attack and Pat Matchett has done such a good job using the width of the field and his ability to complement our attacking positions,” Salcedo said. “It just gives us another weapon as we go forward.”
The fourth goal for UCLA came from sophomore forward Victor Chavez in the 89th minute from a cross, played by sophomore midfielder Victor Munoz, to seal the game at 4-1.
Redshirt senior goalkeeper Brian Rowe made his return home on Sunday, but this time it was the hosts, the Beavers, that were rude.
A little over four minutes after kickoff, Oregon State scored off a corner kick that UCLA had trouble clearing.
“Their goal came from a corner kick and really, that’s their bread and butter,” Salcedo said. “They got a good header on it and they had guys at the back post that make it difficult for us on set pieces.”
Kelyn Rowe equalized the game right before half to tie the game at 1-1.
The game looked destined for overtime until the 90th minute when Hollingshead played a ball from the center of the box to the left side where Munoz was positioned, and he put the ball in the back of the net to give the Bruins the go-ahead goal and eventual game-winner.
Brian Rowe made an impression on his home state, tallying four saves on the way to victory.
“Brian and I love going home so it’s good to have a fan base on your side while away,” Kelyn Rowe said. “I grew up in Seattle and (Brian) Rowe grew up in Oregon, so it was good for us to go home and see our families and let them watch us play.”
In preparation for this weekend, junior defender Matt Wiet said, “We’ve hit some rough spots, but I think the biggest thing is just to keep building on what we’ve already started defensively and offensively. We’re going to work a lot on our cohesiveness from front to back.”
Regarding Munoz’s game-winning goal, Kelyn Rowe said, “We broke down Oregon State all the way from the back, going forward and got a great cross with a great finish, and those are the types of goals we want to have.”