Even Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick Saturday.
The Bruins, however, put on a clinic from the penalty spot, going 2-for-2 on the night.
Powered by two penalty conversions, No. 3 UCLA women’s soccer (5-2, 1-0 Big Ten) defeated Oregon (2-5-1, 0-1-0) by a score of 2-0 Saturday at Wallis Annenberg Stadium, extending the Bruins’ streak of shutout victories to four.
UCLA started the game on the front foot, garnering four shots in the first eight minutes – including multiple chances created by freshman forward Leena Powell on the right wing. However, Oregon goalkeeper Caeley Goldstein held off the Bruin attack.
“If I go one versus one, I’m going to get a cross off, I’m going to get a shot off, and that’ll put somebody else in a better position,” Powell said. “If I don’t do that, it’s going to be harder for everybody around me.”
After the Bruins’ early push, they failed to record another shot until the 31st minute.
The Bruins outshot the Ducks six-to-one by halftime, but only an early chance that ricocheted off the post came close to breaking the deadlock.
“The criticism we had at halftime was that the tempo was just too slow,” said coach Margueritte Aozasa. “We were content just keeping the ball, not really trying to be dangerous, and so the second half was really an emphasis on that.”
Powell made a slicing run down the right wing and into the box but was slide-tackled from behind by Oregon defender Selah Simms in the 58th minute. The foul earned Simms a yellow card and gave the Bruins a penalty kick.
Redshirt senior midfielder Emma Egizii stepped up to take the penalty, slotting it into the left side of the goal to give UCLA the lead. Egizii has scored or assisted in each of her past three games.
“I hope we can continue to score goals that are more our style, really show people our style of play,” Egizii said.
In the 75th minute, UCLA won another penalty courtesy of senior forward Lily Boyden, and sophomore forward Bella Winn struck the ball with a driven shot into the bottom right corner to double the advantage to 2-0. This was Winn’s third goal of the season, having scored the opening goal last weekend against Stanford.
Physicality was the name of the game throughout the contest – UCLA and Oregon recorded a total of seven and 12 fouls, respectively. Ultimately, the Bruins harnessed this roughness, and it played out in their favor with the awarded penalty kicks.
“Knowing they’re going to come out hard, we just need to come out harder,” Powell said. “Getting back up, keeping playing and encouraging your teammates to keep that energy up is such a big thing.”
UCLA remained defensively strong as well, allowing just three shots from Oregon and forcing a single save. Sophomore goalkeeper Mariangela Medina made her second appearance of the season, playing the entire second half.
Next week, UCLA will go on the road to face Michigan State and Michigan, both of which opened Big Ten Conference play with a tie.
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