UCLA Newcomers Key 2-0 Win Over Long Beach State

LOS ANGELES – UCLA’s youth motion was on full show on Friday evening throughout the Bruins’ 2-0 victory over Long Beach State. Bruin newcomers accounted for each targets and all three assists, with freshman ahead Payten Cooper recording a objective and help, junior switch Oruha Hayashi scoring her first NCAA objective, and freshmen Leena Powell and Grace Shank selecting up assists. 

Freshman goalkeeper Daphne Nakfoor saved a penalty kick within the first half and contributed to a shared shutout with sophomore Mariangela Medina, who performed a scoreless second half in her collegiate debut. 

The match threatened to be eerily much like final week’s 1-0 loss at BYU. For the second-straight match, a penalty was referred to as on UCLA for a foul within the field after a video evaluate. But Nakfoor made the save, diving to her left to cease Natelle El Mokbel’s penalty kick and maintain the sport scoreless within the thirty sixth minute. Nakfoor had additionally come up massive earlier with a fingertip save on a shot by Radisson Banks within the twenty first minute.

The Bruins (2-2) introduced in a number of new starters for the second half, and the transfer paid off rapidly, as Cooper netted the sport’s first objective and her first collegiate objective within the fiftieth minute. Powell gathered a clearance try that was deflected by Hayashi, then received round a defender to ship an ideal cross throughout the objective. Cooper headed it previous Long Beach State goalkeeper Aurora Schuck for the go-ahead objective. 

Less than a minute later, the Beach (1-4) threatened to attain on a free kick, however Julie Lopez’s looping shot from simply outdoors the highest of the field was pushed over the crossbar by the 6-0 Medina for her first collegiate save.  

Cooper performed a job within the second objective within the sixty fifth minute, sending a ball ahead to Shank, who one-timed it over to Hayashi on her left. The 2024 Junior College National Player of the Year drilled a left-footed shot previous Shuck to double up the Bruins’ lead.   

The Bruins allowed only one Long Beach State shot after that and 6 total on their approach to their second shutout of the 12 months. 

“In the second half, we made some adjustments tactically, and we made some adjustments personnel-wise, and I thought the group that started the second half, you could just see the change in their mentality,” stated UCLA head coach Margueritte Aozasa. “It was very clear they were not going to lose tonight.” 

UCLA will subsequent play at Portland on Thursday, Sept. 4 earlier than internet hosting No. 1 Stanford on Sunday, Sept. 7.