LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Bruins allowed three second-half goals and fell to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, 4-2, on Monday night at Drake Stadium. Seyi Adekoya and Larry Ndjock both scored for the Bruins in the defeat.
“Obviously this is a difficult result, but for the most part we got what we deserved,” said UCLA Head Coach Jorge Salcedo. “The four goals we gave up were avoidable and if our team and individual defending was better, I think it could have been a different result. UC Santa Barbara came in and attacked us really well in the second half and we struggled to deal with it.”
The match got off to a quiet start with neither team generating much offense, resulting in just five combined shots through the first 25 minutes of action. However, UCLA (2-4-0) got the game's first break in the 29th minute when Ndjock was taken down in the box. The German striker took on a defender on the left edge of the penalty area and was subsequently shoved to the ground, giving the Bruins a penalty kick. It was Ndjock that took the shot and buried it in the bottom right corner for his first goal of the season to put UCLA up by a score early on.
UC Santa Barbara (4-2-1) responded quickly with the equalizing goal in the 38th minute of play. Gauchos' leading-scorer Nick DePuy fed a pass from the center of the pitch to the left of the 18-yard box where he found Geoffrey Acheampong. DePuy then charged towards the net and got his head on the end of Acheampong's cross to bring UC Santa Barbara even with the Bruins at one.
At the half, UCLA was being out-shot by the Gauchos, 5-3, and had conceded two corners to the Bruins none.
In the second half, the game began to slip away from UCLA early on. Nine minutes into the period, Ahinga Selemani gave UC Santa Barbara its first lead of the game on an excellent strike from the top of the penalty area. The sophomore striker carried the ball up the right side of the field before cutting in hard towards the center of the pitch. Once in the center from 20 yards out, Selemani let a hard low left-footed drive go towards the bottom right corner, scoring past Juan Cervantes to put the Gauchos up, 2-1.
Three minutes later, it was DePuy again giving UCLA trouble. Josue Espana served in a corner to the middle of the box where the 6-foot-5 DePuy skied over the Bruin defenders to head in his second goal of the game. Another five minutes later and it was the same pair causing havoc yet again. This time, DePuy earned the helper, sliding a ball across the face of goal to a wide open Espana off of a counter-attack to bring the UC Santa Barbara lead to three.
UCLA continued to battle and made a late push looking to save its night. After countless attempts, the Bruins finally broke through in the 79th minute. Adekoya scored his team-leading third goal after Gage Zerboni served in a cross to a crowded penalty area from the left wing. The sophomore striker controlled the ball and quickly fired on net to cut the UCLA deficit to two. However, that would mark the final tally of the evening for the Bruins who eventually fell, 4-2.
In total, UCLA was out-shot for the just the second time this season, 14-10. Cervantes allowed a career-high four goals while making four saves. Gaucho goalkeeper Justin Vom Steeg came up with four saves of his own on the evening.
The Bruins continue their stretch of home matches on Friday, September 25 when they take on VCU at 4:30pm PT at Drake Stadium. The game can be seen live on the Pac-12 Networks and listened to live on uclabruins.com. Tickets for all home matches are available and can be purchased by visiting uclabruins.com/tickets or by calling 310-UCLA-WIN.