(Photo Courtesy of Ross Turteltaub/UCLA Athletics)
Marley Canales Buries Golden Goal, Seals UCLA Women's Soccer Win
The Bruins have built up a good amount of experience in extra time, and it showed Sunday afternoon.
No. 3 UCLA women's soccer (11-0-2, 3-0-2 Pac-12) beat Colorado (6-6-1, 1-3-1) 2-1 in double overtime at Wallis Annenberg Stadium, with graduate midfielder Marley Canales burying the game-winner to lift her team to victory. After not having to go past regulation in any of their eight nonconference matches, the Bruins have now played at least one overtime in four of their five Pac-12 contests.
The Buffaloes also came in with some experience playing longer than the designated 90 minutes, as they won in overtime in their third game of the season back on Aug. 22 and tied California after two extra periods on Sept. 25.
UCLA tied both Oregon and Utah after two overtimes, with an overtime win on the road against Arizona State sandwiched in between.
Even the UCLA men's team won in overtime at Wallis on Friday night against San Diego State, so the thirst for extra soccer might be spreading through Westwood.
Canales is the one who contracted the golden goal bug this time around, as she was the one who finished things off in the 107th minute after several other Bruins crowded around the net for a handful of rebound chances.
Graduate midfielder Olivia Athens was the one who scored the game-winner against the Sun Devils two weeks ago, and she was held off the board entirely Sunday. She did not attempt a shot in her 94 minutes on the pitch. Leading scorers sophomore forward Reilyn Turner and junior forward Mia Fishel combined for four shots, but they were unable to find the back of the net either.
Redshirt senior forward Kennedy Faulknor, who scored the Bruins' lone goal in the tie against the Utes on Thursday, contributed again, however.
Freshman defender Jayden Perry was working the ball down the right wing and sent a low cross in front past several Buffaloes. Faulknor had one more defender to beat to get to the ball, cutting her off with a sliding left-footed finish that put the ball in the top right corner.
Faulknor had zero goals on the season coming into the weekend homestand, and ended it with two – both of which were key in keeping the Bruins alive in the pursuit of a second-straight conference title.
The Bruins were the more physical team Sunday too, getting whistled for nine fouls compared to the Buffaloes’ two. That physicality led to more pressure on the other end as well – UCLA attempted 17 shots to Colorado’s eight.
Nine of those attempts ended up on net and seven were saved by Buffalo goalkeeper Dani Hansen. Senior goalkeeper Lauren Bryzkcy recorded four saves of her own, but she allowed a goal in her fourth consecutive match after not allowing one in her first nine outings.
The two goals meant UCLA didn’t need a clean sheet to win this time around though, so they’ll head to Oregon State on Friday still not having lost a game this season. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Corvallis.
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