With second place in the Pac-12 on the line, the Washington men’s soccer team started the scoring early but fell to UCLA in Los Angeles, 2-1, on Sunday night.
Both teams had chances early, but it was the Huskies (7-5-6, 3-3-3 Pac-12) that struck first. In the 12th minute, redshirt freshman forward Kyle Coffee found the back of the net for his second goal of the season and second collegiate goal in one week, after scoring the game-winner against Stanford last Monday in Seattle.
Redshirt junior defender Justin Schmidt and sophomore defender Justin Fiddes were both credited with the assist off a set piece from a long throw.
The UW is known to be dominant on set pieces, which would prove to be difficult for the Bruins (10-7-1, 5-3-1 Pac-12) throughout the matchup.
However, the UW and UCLA ended the night evenly matched on corner kicks with eight each, though the Bruins outshot the Huskies 20-7.
In the 21st minute, senior defender Michael Gallagher got his first of two yellow cards on the night. Only 10 minutes later, he got a second yellow card for dissent, ejecting him from the game and leaving the UW to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.
Immediately after Gallagher was ejected, UCLA freshman midfielder Jackson Yueill scored the equalizer off a free kick in the 31st minute.
In the first half, redshirt senior goalkeeper Ryan Herman made six saves, before being replaced at the halftime break with redshirt sophomore Auden Schilder.
The second goal for UCLA came in the 60th minute, again from Yueill, breaking the 1-1 tie.
Toward the end of the second half, the fouls weren’t over for the Huskies, as redshirt freshman defender Luke Hauswirth earned a yellow card in the 67th minute.
The Huskies now sit at fourth in the conference as UCLA has moved to second, and Stanford holds on to the top spot.
With only one win away from home this season, the UW will be looking for three points when they travel to Corvallis, Ore., to face Oregon State at 2 p.m. on Thursday. The game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
Reach Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Altena at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @kkaltena
