A little luck and huge saves carry Bruins

• by Soccer America , Oct 11, 2013

[STANFORD-UCLA: Men] Aaron Simmons' first career goal in the 89th minute gave No. 5 UCLA a 1-0 win over Stanford Thursday night in Westwood, extending its winning streak to four games going into Sunday's match at Drake Stadium against No. 1 Cal. It was just the third loss of the season for the Cardinal with all three of those setbacks coming against top six teams.

Goalie Earl Edwards Jr. made big saves on Jimmy Callinan, Jordan Morris and Zach Batteer in the first hour to keep Stanford off the scoreboard.

The Bruins won when Simmons out-jumped the Stanford defense before heading Ryan Lee's cross off two Stanford defenders and into the back of the net.

“Tonight’s win was a really hard-fought match,” UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo said. “Stanford played a good game and came in with a great game plan that made it difficult for us. They continually looked to counter and I thought our guys did a really good job of defending the counter and their two strikers. At the end of the day, the goal comes from Aaron Simmons battling in the air like he had all night. There was a little bit of luck involved, but we created our own luck tonight and got the victory.”

The Cardinal (6-3-1) previously fell to then-No. 3 Georgetown (2-0 on Sept. 1) and No. 3 Washington (3-1 on Oct. 3).

“We know that we’re doing so many things right, and we just keep believing in all the great things players are doing,” Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn said. “We know that the season is just a journey where we’re taking steps forward each time we play. Tonight was very tough for us to play and settle on the ball and credit to the Bruins that they managed to pressure the ball quite well. But that being said we did manage to put together some great sequences and create some outstanding chances. The most valuable player out there tonight would have to be UCLA’s keeper, who made a couple of huge saves.”