There wasn’t one time this year that the Saint Louis University men’s soccer was completely overmatched. Even in its four losses and two ties, the Bills hung in the games or didn’t get the benefit of a couple of officials’ calls.
But on Sunday afternoon at Robert R. Hermann Stadium, coach Bob Warming’s squad met their match in the form of the UCLA Bruins. UCLA dominated the play and made the best of its chances on the way to a 2-0 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“In championship-caliber games like this, you don’t get a lot of chances,” said Warming. “You certainly have to finish the chances you get. When you get that chance you have to put it away.”
The Bruins took advantage of their golden chances while the Billikens muffed theirs. In the 36th minute, McKinley Tennyson raced behind the Billiken defense and ran onto a through ball from Pete Vagenas. Tennyson carried the ball down the middle of the field alone and beat SLU goalie Paul Nagy from 10 yards out to the far left post.
Tennyson’s goal came after a Billiken turnover in the midfield. The defense was pulling out, after clearing the ball out, but Vagenas intercepted the ball and fed Tennyson for the goal. While it didn’t work out as originally planned, sneaking behind the defense was something that UCLA had wanted to do going into the game.
“We wanted our forwards to play the ball back to our midfield and get behind the defense for runs,” Tennyson said.
The goal seemed to wake the Billikens up. Up to that point SLU could rarely string together more than two passes at a time. Senior playmaking midfielders Jeff DiMaria and Jason Mims were held in check by the UCLA midfielders throughout the game. DiMaria was also hampered by a torn quadriceps muscle.
“Those two guys, we thought offensively, we’d have to take care of,” UCLA coach Todd Saldana said.
Just under two minutes after the Bruin goal, the Billikens had their best chance of the first half. Marty Tappel crossed a ball from the right side to the center of the box. Keeper Nick Rimando punched the ball out, but the ball was sent right back in by the Bills.
Nick Walls found himself with the ball from 12 yards away, but three Bruin defenders surrounded him, preventing him from getting a shot off. The ball then caromed out of the penalty box to Jason Mims, whose shot sailed five yards wide of the net.
UCLA continued to hold the ball in the second half. SLU had one decent chance in the first 25 minutes of the half-a free kick by Mims that was cleared away in the box. The Bruins maintained possession and got good chances from Tennyson and Shea Travis.
The Bruins’ persistence paid off in the 63rd minute. Sasha Victorine tallied the Bruins’ second goal off of a scramble in the box. A corner kick flew to the far right post and was sent back to the near post. Tennyson couldn’t connect on a bicycle kick, but Victorine was there to smack a full volley. His initial shot hit the crossbar, but he collected his own rebound and poked it in while laying on the ground.
“They destroyed our rhythm,” DiMaria said. “They’re a team that likes to hold onto the ball, and that’s what we like to do.”
SLU had its best chance of the second half with about 12 minutes left in regulation. Walls was all alone in the penalty area, but a Bruin defender closed in and deflected the ball away before Walls could get a shot off.
SLU had many free kicks in the final minutes, but UCLA cleared them away nearly every time.
“We played a tremendous opponent today,” Warming said. “On the day, they were up there as the best team (we’ve played this year).”
Last weekend, SLU bounced Illinois-Chicago from the tourney in the first round, winning the game at Hermann Stadium 3-2. The Bills fell behind twice in the game, 1-0 and 2-1, and even were down a player for over 14 minutes. But they managed to fight back and fend off a fiesty UIC team. Jason Cole scored the game-winning goal in the 68th minute off a corner kick.
You never want to play from behind, especially against a team that it’s their first time (in the tourney),” DiMaria said. “Give UIC credit. They got us out of our rhythm.”
The Billikens, who were the third seed in the tournament, end their season with a 17-4-2 record. The program participated in its 38th NCAA Tournament in the 41-year history of the event. SLU won all three regular-season tournaments it played in. And the Bills were co-champions of Conference USA.
“The team made a lot of progress,” Warming said. “I hope they (the team) won’t judge this year by one game. I hope it won’t be what sticks in their minds.”
