Santa Clara Overcomes USD

For the past two years, senior sweeper Trong Nguyen had been the heart of the USD soccer team’s defense. Had been.

Friday night, in perhaps the Toreros’ most important game ever, against West Coast Conference rival and No. 6-ranked UC Santa Clara, Nguyen went down with a knee injury with just over two minutes remaining in regulation.

It was a scoreless tie at that point and remained so when the two teams headed into the first of two 15-minute overtime periods. Some 10 minutes into the extra period, Nguyen’s absence was glaring. Santa Clara, which had controlled play and had been on the attack the entire game, was suddenly doing something it could not do during regulation.

It was working the ball into the goal mouth.

In the 103rd minute, Santa Clara finally broke the ice. It eventually won, 2-0, in front of 3,000 and ended both USD’s eight-game winning streak and its 17-game unbeaten streak at home.

USD, ranked 16th going in, fell to 14-2-4, 1-2-0.

The first goal was scored by junior midfielder Bruce Broughton, but it was created by senior forward Jeff Baicher, who dribbled the ball down the left wing while keeping a defender an arm’s length away.

Baicher lost the defender when he turned toward the goal. Once free, he sent a pass into the middle, where Broughton hit it with his right foot and by freshman goalie Tom Tate.

It was one of only two shots during the first overtime period. The other was taken by Baicher, five yards in front of the goal. It hit the crossbar.

Two shots within a couple minutes and both right on goal; that was not the case when Nguyen was in the middle of things.

“Trong is our All-American,’ said USD Coach Seamus McFadden. ‘And when he got injured, that really . . . well, we had to do a lot of shuffling.”

For Santa Clara (11-2-3, 2-1-0), it was its fifth consecutive shutout, something which can be attributed to a change made by Coach Steve Sampson in early October, after his team gave up five goals in two games during the Clemson Classic.

The big change was in goal Kevin Rueda came in, and it’s now five shutouts later.

In this one, Santa Clara didn’t have to rely on Rueda’s long reach. USD spent most of the time in front of its own goal. At the end of regulation, Santa Clara had outshot the Toreros, 13-6. By game’s end, the margin was 18-9.

Rueda was called on to make only five saves, while Tate had to come up with nine.

Santa Clara outshot USD, 5-3, in the first half, but neither team really came close to the goal.

USD’s best chance came 22 minutes in, when midfielder Toby Taitano first-timed a pass from Charles Adair on the right side. Rueda made a diving save, but the shot was off target anyway.

USD’s few shots came off quick counter attacks. Quick and short lived.

The second half was more of the same.

Santa Clara’s best chance came with 10 minutes remaining in regulation. Junior defender Matt Rast and senior forward Paul Bravo worked a give-and-go through traffic at the top of the penalty box. Rast emerged from a crowd with the ball and fired a shot that just missed the left post. Only Tate knew the shot’s path was errant; he did not move on the shot.

With just over two minutes remaining in regulation, Santa Clara found some more openings. Rast ran onto a free ball at the top of the box and fired a shot that Tate punched out.

After USD failed several times to clear the ball, Broughton took a shot from the right side that Tate kept out of the corner of the net with a diving save.

It was during that flurry that Nguyen took a kick in the left knee. He was later carried off the field. Team Doctor Robert Button said Nguyen suffered a possible fracture to the tibia.

Before the injury, Nguyen had missed only two minutes in four years.