UCLA Men's Soccer Sneaks by Rutgers in Nonconference Road Win

The Bruins will be away from Westwood for the rest of the season, and they started that run with a tight nonconference win on Saturday.

UCLA men's soccer (9-5-1, 3-3-1 Pac-12) eked out a 1-0 victory over Rutgers (8-4-5, 4-2-2 Big Ten) in the first game of a season-ending, four-game road trip. The Scarlet Knights had the more pressing attack from start to finish, but heroics on both ends helped the Bruins ultimately pick up their fifth clean sheet win in the past month.

Of the 17 games UCLA has played this year – regular season or exhibition – 14 have ended with at least one team getting shut out.

The shutout Saturday afternoon in New Jersey can largely be attributed to sophomore goalkeeper Nate Crockford.

Crockford faced six shots on goal, with Rutgers attempting 15 overall on the day, and none found the back of the net. The keeper turned away shots in the 38th and 40th minutes to stymie the Scarlet Knights' attack in the first half, and continued to blank them to open the second by making saves in the 53rd and 56th.

Junior defender Pablo Greenlee got called for a foul in the box when Rutgers were making another push to score in the 86th minute. That brought forward MD Myers up for a penalty kick that could have tied the match and robbed UCLA of a big road win.

Crockford denied Myers' PK, though, winning the 1-on-1 showdown with the nation's leading goal-scorer in the process.

Rutgers did not get another shot off in the final few minutes, and UCLA escaped with the victory.

All six of Crockford's saves came with the lead already in the Bruins' back pocket, as the Scarlet Knights' attack didn't really pick up the pace until they were already trailing 1-0.

UCLA was attempting a corner kick in the 24th minute when the ball eventually made its way to senior midfielder Riley Ferch. The veteran hadn't scored since he went for two goals against Liberty on Sept. 2, but he broke that streak by unleashing a strike from the top of the box, placing it perfectly into the top right corner.

That turned out to be the only shot the Bruins put on target in the entire game. Overall, they were outshot 15-6 and got called for four offsides to the Scarlet Knights' zero.

All that mattered was Ferch's early golazo and Crockford's consistency in goal, though, and the scattered season-ending road trip thus opened with a win.

UCLA's next game is set for Thursday at No. 1 Washington, followed by a trip to Oregon State the following Sunday. The Bruins lost 1-0 to both teams in one weekend when they came to Westwood earlier in the season, so the blue and gold will need to avenge those results with wins in order to avoid falling to fourth place in the Pac-12.

The showdown between UCLA and undefeated Washington in Seattle is scheduled for an 8 p.m. kickoff and will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF UCLA ATHLETICS