This post was updated Oct. 31 at 10:12 p.m.
In front of a packed stadium, 2,000 fans collectively held their breath.
The Bruins had a penalty kick against their main competition at a critical point in the race for their 9th Pac-12 conference championship.
Then, redshirt junior midfielder Tucker Lepley hit the post, failing to score from 12 yards out with only the goalkeeper to beat.
On Senior Day at Wallis Annenberg Stadium, UCLA men’s soccer (7-3-4, 4-0-3 Pac-12) failed to score against Oregon State (7-5-4, 4-1-4), with the game ending in a 0-0 tie. The result means that the Bruins – the only unbeaten team remaining in the Pac-12 – could win the conference with two wins in their final three regular-season games.
Coach Ryan Jorden said even though he felt his team could have won the game, he was happy with their overall performance because of how it sets up the end of their season.
“I probably feel like we let two points away, but in the spectrum of what the table looks like, the draw still suits us because we’ve got three games to go and they’ve got one and (are) only one point behind,” Jorden said.
In the first half, the Bruins took five shots, their lowest in the first halves in Pac-12 play this season. Even still, UCLA’s mark exceeded Oregon State’s three shots through the game’s opening half.
In the 52nd minute, the Bruins were awarded a penalty after a foul on senior forward Andre Ochoa. Lepley stepped up to take the shot but hit the right-side goal post, missing the opportunity to score the game-winner and what would have been his third goal of the season.
Lepley said he didn’t think too much about missing the penalty afterward.
“At the end of the day, I had a chance to put the game away and I didn’t do it. So I’ll wear that as the captain and as the leader of this team,” Lepley said. “I got 25 other brothers who are going to pick me up, so I ain’t worried about it.”
Despite not scoring themselves, the Bruins picked up their second conference shutout of the season after winning 1-0 earlier in the week against Washington. Freshman goalkeeper Wyatt Nelson made two saves in the game.
Graduate student defender Owen Schwartz said he felt that avoiding conceding goals has been a whole team effort.
“As the year has gone on, we’ve grown chemistry together in the back line,” Schwartz said. “I think we understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and I think we can play to that.”
The Bruins entered the game with a number of players out injured for the second game in a row, including graduate student forward Jack Sarkos – the team’s top scorer – and graduate student midfielder Ryan Becher, who had started in 12 of the previous 13 games.
Lepley said that even though a number of players were out injured for the Oregon State game, he didn’t feel that the missing players impacted their performance.
“We’ve shown this year, regardless of the lineup we have out there, that we’re capable of beating anybody,” Lepley said. “Today was just another example of that: We competed. I didn’t really think we gave much away, and we should have taken the points.”
With the home slate over, UCLA will hit the road for three games across the next two weeks to round out its season, playing California, Stanford and San Diego State.
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