Highlanders Defeated on the Road by UCLA

Tuesday, October 1

Los Angeles, Calif.

7:00 P.M.

UC Riverside

5-3-2, 0-0-0

UCLA

4-4-1, 0-2-0

Team	1	2	Final F
UC Riverside	0	1	1
UCLA	1	2	3

Photo by: Dwain Linden

Highlanders Defeated on the Road by UCLA

10/1/2019 9:05:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

LOS ANGELES—The UC Riverside Men's Soccer Team (5-3-2) was defeated 3-0 at UCLA (4-4-1) Tuesday night in just the team's third road contest of the season. The Highlanders struggled in the early parts of each period in their matchup with the Bruins with the home team scoring all three of its goals in the opening minutes of each half.

The Bruins came out aggressive on the attack and after pressing in their offensive third early, found a pair of strong scoring opportunities. The first was a great chance for UCLA's Riley Ferch who fired one into the center of the goal, but senior keeper Edwyn Gutierrez would be there to pick up his first save.

Just over a minute later, Ferch found himself in the box again, receiving a pass from Matthew Powell. He would not miss another opportunity rolling the first goal of the match into the right corner of the Highlander goal in the fourth minute.

The UCLA score ignited the Highlanders who responded with aggressive play, holding the ball in their offensive half and putting immense pressure on the Bruin defense. UCR gave themselves several good looks that could be felt by the anxious home crowd but could not connect as the first period came to a close.

The momentum appeared to carry over in to the second period with the Highlanders attacking early, but UCLA was quick to extinguish the visiting Highlanders' hopes punching in two goals in the 49^th and 50^th minutes to go up 3-0.

Against all odds, the Highlanders refused to quit, and finally broke through in the 90^th minute. A pair of defenders in freshman Matthew Mitiku and senior Uros Ilic would shock the home crowd as Mitiku played a ball across to Ilic, who fired it in the net to kill the Bruin shutout. The second goal of the senior's career.

Sophomore Issa Badawiya and senior Ronaldo Lomeli each notched a pair of shots on the night, and sophomore Dorian Morrison nearly headed in a late corner kick for his first shot of the season. Morrison would add another great look from the left with under two minutes to go that set up the goal from Ilic.

The Highlanders have now come up winless in their last four matches (two ties, two losses), seeing a flurry of tough opponents, but will look to bounce back this Friday as they close out their non-conference schedule at Portland.