UC Irvine Earns Respect, but Not Victory

The UC Irvine men’s soccer team didn’t pull off the stunning upset, but the Anteaters did scare the top-ranked UCLA Bruins and gain some much-needed respect for the Anteater program--losing 2-1 in overtime Thursday before a record crowd of 1,545 at Anteater Stadium.

Adolfo Gregorio, a freshman forward for the Bruins, ended UCI’s upset bid when he blasted a deflected throw-in past goalkeeper Tyler Reid from just inside the top of the penalty box two minutes into sudden-death overtime. Reid, who kept the Anteaters alive by stopping a late penalty shot, tipped the ball but it still slipped in the upper-left corner.

Reid, who had five of his six saves in the second half, extended the game by saving a penalty kick by forward McKinley Tennyson with 24 minutes left in regulation. Tennyson, who had hat tricks in his last two games, sent his shot high left and Reid sent it back into play.

“That play gave us a rush,” UCI Coach George Kuntz said. “Tyler stepped up today.”

So did the rest of the Anteaters, who have defeated UCLA once in 14 attempts. Though they were playing a team comprised almost entirely of high school All-Americans, the Anteaters (5-2) played even with the Bruins (5-0) for much of the 90 minutes. Gregorio said he’s not sure his teammates took UCI seriously.

“This wasn’t one of our better games,” said Gregorio, one of five freshman who start. “We were sloppy. Maybe we’re getting a little too comfortable with our No. 1 ranking. Maybe we needed a game to wake us up.”

Kuntz, whose unranked team is off to its best start in six years, thought the Anteaters played well enough to be ranked.

“We feel like we deserve a little respect,” he said. “We played valiantly against the No. 1 team. We’ve been working for six years to put this in place. UCLA has been the measuring stick. Slowly but surely we’ve brought up the talent level.”

The Bruins jumped on the Anteaters before most of the record crowd had sat down. Senior midfielder Shaun Tsakiris one-timed a deflected free kick past Reid two minutes into the game. That lead stood until UCI freshman defender Chris Ruiz headed a cross from midfielder Lawrence Smalls past goalkeeper D.J. Countess seven minutes into the second half.

Matt Taylor, a freshman graduate from Irvine High and one of six county players on the Bruin roster, nearly gave UCLA a lead minutes later, but his hard shot from seven yards was batted away by Reid.