CS Northridge Makes Strides but Loses, 1-0 : Soccer: Matadors play UCLA even until late in an exhibition match when Moore scores on a penalty kick.

Nearly a decade ago, UCLA scored nine goals against Cal State Northridge, the most a CSUN soccer team has surrendered.

On Saturday, it took a penalty kick for the visiting Bruins to down Northridge.

The 1-0 loss in an exhibition match before a crowd estimated at 1,700 demonstrated how far CSUN’s program has come, but Matador Coach Marwan Ass’ad still wouldn’t settle for a moral victory.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “We could have won the game. We had our chances.”

On the lone penalty kick of the match, Bruin midfielder Joe-Max Moore drilled the ball toward the right corner of the net. Northridge goalie Joel Entreken dived to his left, but the ball bounced off his arms and body and rolled in 67 minutes into the 90-minute match. The kick was awarded after junior forward Gustavo Cardenas knocked Moore down in front of the goal.

UCLA, ranked third in a national coaches’ preseason poll, finished with a 17-11 advantage in shots on goal, 30-15 in overall attempts. But except for a handful of corner kicks that were headed away by Northridge defenders, the Bruins were limited to low-percentage shots.

“The question for me was, can our defense play?” Ass’ad said. “And I found out we can. Now we just need to work with the midfielders and the forwards and we’ll be on course. Our team in the midfield can play so much better.

“When we won the ball, we were poor, that was a major weakness today. I told them when we win the ball, one pass is good, two is great, so our challenge is to get off two passes.”

For example, CSUN players need look no farther than UCLA, which put on a clinic in terms of ball control and precision passing.

Bruin Coach Sigi Schmid allowed that his team dominated team play, but he wasn’t pleased with the individual battles.

“I thought we were patient and we had possession but Northridge won more of the one-on-one individual battles,” Schmid said. “The last third of the field (offensive zone) we didn’t look good. We tried things that were impossible. We weren’t simple enough in that part of the field.”

UCLA sophomore midfielder Chris Henderson, a member of the U. S. World Cup team, was the sharpest Bruin inside 20 yards of the goal. In the first half alone, he got off a match-high four shots on goal. CSUN’s defense tightened after halftime, however, holding him to two shots on goal.

“Since I’ve been on the team, this is the best exhibition we’ve played against UCLA,” said junior defender Ed Burns.

“Their goal was a penalty kick so that says something. And we had our chances.”

Several of Northridge’s open-field scoring opportunities were sabotaged by offside violations.

“The experience of the UCLA defense caused that more than anything,” said Burns. “And two of our forwards are freshmen (Dominic Zapata and Armando Valdivia). They’re fast but they were jumping the gun.”

Although it was an exhibition match, CSUN played it as though it counted. “We always take them seriously because we have something to prove,” Burns said, “especially in the first year of Division I. To stand up to a contender, that says a lot for us.”

Several CSUN players went down with injuries but only Danny Daniels’ sprained ankle appears to be serious. Daniels’ status is uncertain for the season opener and the soccer team’s Division I debut Saturday against visiting UC Irvine.