Another Title for UCLA

Persistence paid off for the UCLA men’s soccer team, and it resulted in its fourth NCAA championship.

Aaron Lopez scored off a free kick with 1:02 remaining to give the Bruins a 1-0 victory over Stanford and their first national title since 1997.

UCLA (18-3-3) finished the season with six consecutive victories, but the final one was the hardest. The high-scoring Bruins managed only two shots on goal in the match but beat their Pacific 10 Conference rival for the third time this season before 8,498 at Southern Methodist’s Ford Stadium in Dallas.

“Wow, it’s like am I dreaming or am I really here?” defender Leonard Griffin said. “We always talked about this, and now it’s happened.”

UCLA won both Pac-10 matches between the teams this season, 1-0. Sunday’s match was another defensive struggle.

There were few good scoring chances; Bruin goalie Zach Wells and Cardinal keeper Robby Fulton each made only one save.

Fulton couldn’t stop the last opportunity. After UCLA drew a foul along the left side, midfielder Ryan Futagaki took a free kick outside the penalty box.

The left-footed Futagaki sent a pass toward the middle as players loaded up inside the box. Lopez, a sophomore defender, made a run to the back edge and beat Stanford’s Seyi Abolaji to the ball.

Normally a right-footed shot, Lopez got his left foot on the ball and put it cleanly past Fulton to the right corner of the net.

“You need to get at least a yard and a half of space to get that shot and I made my move,” said Lopez, who scored three of his four goals in the playoffs. “The ball had some spin on it and I just put my foot on the ball.”

Stanford (18-5-2) nearly took the lead in the sixth minute. Wells got caught out of position on a corner kick and Taylor Graham sent a header toward the goal. UCLA midfielder Jimmy Frazelle blocked the ball at the goal line and cleared it.

Futagaki nearly put the Bruins up in the 31st minute when he rocketed a free kick off the left post from 25 yards out.

Stanford controlled most of the action in the first half. The UCLA back row of Griffin, Scot Thompson and Tony Lawson cut off forwards Matt Janusz and Roger Levesque each time they got the ball inside the Bruin box.

“We knew it was going to be difficult because they’re very, very big and good on set pieces,” UCLA Coach Tom Fitzgerald said. “It was a real challenge but our guys stepped up and didn’t get them very many opportunities.”

Futagaki said the offensive push in the last five minutes was decisive.

“Our coaches told us it was going to be a battle until the end,” he said. “We were going to get fatigued but we could never give up.

“Today, we showed it in the end.”