Bruins Advance to Final Four in Men’s Soccer

Matt Taylor’s first career hat trick highlighted an explosion of six second-half goals for the UCLA men’s soccer team, which advanced to the NCAA College Cup with a 7-1 victory over Penn State before 1,548 Saturday night at Drake Stadium.

The Bruins (16-3-3) overcame their first deficit of the postseason and continued their torrid scoring pace that included 17 goals in the last four games. They advance to a semifinal Friday against Maryland at Gerald Ford Stadium at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Tim Pierce gave UCLA a 2-1 lead in the 52nd minute with an assist from Taylor. Pierce scored again five minutes later with an assist from Taylor and Adolfo Gregorio.

Taylor, who finished with three assists, scored his first two goals in a five-minute span, the first a sliding left-footed kick from a few feet away on an assist from Cliff McKinley.

Pierce leads the Bruins with 12 goals. Taylor extended his total to 11. Jimmy Frazelle and Gregorio also scored for UCLA.

“Our team has a lot of good offensive players,” Pierce said. “Teams can’t really zone in on any one particular guy. We can attack from all over the place. Things are really rolling right now.”

Penn State (16-8) took a 1-0 lead on David Walter’s goal three minutes into the game. The Bruins tied it in the 25th minute on a penalty kick by Gregorio. The kick came after Penn State goalkeeper Ryan Sickman was ejected after colliding with McKinley, who was attempting to score on a breakaway.

-- Vince Kowalick

In NCAA women’s volleyball:

USC d. Texas A & M, 30-18, 30-21, 30-23 -- April Ross and Keao Burdine each had 12 kills to lead the Trojans to the straight-set victory in the second round of the West Regional.

Toni Anderson had 20 assists and Tracy Lindquist had 18 assists for top-seeded USC (27-1). Melissa Munsch had 11 kills to lead the Aggies (21-10).

UC Santa Barbara d. California, 30-26, 30-25, 30-26 -- Erica Menzel had 14 kills and 14 digs, Danielle Bauer had 14 kills and nine digs and setter Brooke Niles had 45 assists, 24 digs and eight kills for the Gauchos (30-2) in the second round of the West Regional.

In junior college football:

Canyons 52, Chaffey 27 -- J.J. Arrington rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns in 27 carries and quarterback Kyle Bauer completed 18 of 30 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Cougars to the victory in the Verizon Southern California Bowl at Chaffey (10-1).

Canyons (10-1) will play Reedley College in the State Championship Bowl at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bakersfield College. Reedley defeated Fresno, 39-28, Saturday.

Moorpark 55, Pasadena 28 -- Chase Schmidtz rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns in 20 carries and Tony Williams completed eight of 16 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns for the Raiders in the Shrine Potato Bowl in Bakersfield.

Williams connected with Barry Tolli four times for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown pass to Greg Estandia. Moorpark, which had five interceptions, had three returns for touchdowns -- a 22-yard return by Mike Argo of a blocked punt, a 73-yard punt return by Carl Randolph and an 88-yard kickoff return by Korey Cook, who had three interceptions.

Jerome Harrison led Pasadena (8-3) with 243 yards rushing and an 80-yard touchdown run in 21 carries.