Brandon Vincent converted a penalty kick to tie the game and third-ranked Stanford held off a fierce challenge from visiting UCLA to hang onto a 2-2 draw in a Pac-12 Conference men’s soccer match Friday night.
The Cardinal (11-1-2, 4-0-2 Pac-12) maintained a four-point edge over the Bruins in the conference standings heading into Monday night’s 7 p.m. game against San Diego State.
“We’re halfway through the season and we’re still learning things,” Cardinal sophomore forward Foster Langsdorf said. “I think our defense is great. That’s a team that just scored six goals against a real good team in Cal. We need to fine tune some things.”
Langsdorf gave Stanford a 1-0 lead with his fifth goal of the season in the 21st minute. He was set up with razor sharp passes from Eric Verso and Drew Skundrich.
UCLA knotted things with a goal in the 35th minute. A swift counter attack got the ball and a Bruins player behind the defense.
Stanford missed several chances to take charge of the game early and the Bruins had a couple of great shots just miss.
“It was an incredible game of soccer between two good teams going toe to toe,” Cardinal coach Jeremy Gunn said. “I think a tie is a fair result.”
The Cardinal was outshot, 16-4, after halftime, including 5-0 in overtime, with UCLA taking the lead in the 66th minute on a beautifully executed play.
The Bruins maintained possession for most of the second half but Stanford managed to put some pressure on UCLA, which was called for a handball in the 70th minute.
Vincent set the ball down and, hearing a whistle, successfully kicked it into the net. What Vincent, focused on the ball, did not know was the whistle blew to assess a yellow card on a Bruins player.
He had to do it all over again, and came through with another successful attempt.
“We want to win every game but we did get a point out of it,” Vincent said. “It’s all about winning the Pac-12.”