Washington Closes Out LA Trip at UCLA Sunday

Sunday, October 29

Los Angeles, Calif.

5:00 PM

University of Washington

UCLA

October 28, 2017 | Men's Soccer

Game Notes (PDF)

The Huskies picked up a key road win with a 1-0 victory at San Diego State on Thursday and close out the LA trip with at UCLA on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. in a match which can be seen on Pac-12 Networks. Washington, ranked No. 23 in the latest NCAA/United Soccer Coaches Poll, is looking for a bit of revenge against the Bruins after UCLA left Seattle with a 1-0 overtime victory against the Huskies earlier this month.

The match has huge implications in the Pac-12 standings and NCAA playoff picture. Washington holds a slim one-point lead over the Bruins for second place in the conference heading into tonight's match, though UCLA still has two games in hand, facing Stanford and Cal next week while UW has the week off. Both teams play their travel partner the following week to wrap up the regular season.

UCLA Bruins At A Glance
The Bruins thumped Oregon State on Thursday, downing the Beavers 5-0. It was UCLA's highest-scoring match since a season-opening 5-3 win over San Francisco. Brian Iloski added to his team-leading total with his fifth goal of the season while netminder Kevin Silva recorded his fourth shutout of the year.

Series History
UCLA leads the all-time series 29-14-4 including winning seven of the last 10 matches at Drake Stadium. However, last season UW crushed the Bruins 4-0 in LA and won 1-0 in Seattle to sweep the series. Those victories snapped a seven-match unbeaten streak (0-6-1) against UCLA dating back to a 2-0 win in LA in October 2012.

It Takes Two To Make A Thing Go Right
Washington recorded its first victory of the year when scoring less than two goals on Thursday, beating San Diego State 1-0. Prior to the match, the Huskies were 0-5-1 when tallying one or no goals but were a perfect 10-0-0 when scoring two or more. Through Sunday, Washington continues to lead the Pac-12 with 34 goals and ranks 14th in the NCAA in scoring average with—you guessed it—a 2.00 goals per game average.

Menzies Back On Top
Scott Menzies took back the scoring lead for the Huskies with his seventh goal of the season in the win at San Diego State on Thursday. Menzies scored one of his easiest goals of the year, sending a shot past an SDSU defender just in front of the goal for Washington's lone goal of the match. The goal was also the third match-winner for the redshirt junior, who is now second on the team with 15 points.

Caution! Hot Coffee!
Kyle Coffee recorded a brace on Sunday against Cal, giving him a career-high four goals on the season. Coffee scored three of UW's four goals this past week and has tallied four of the team's last nine overall. Coffee, who missed significant time due to injury this season, recorded his first goal of the season against San Diego State on October 5, seeing his first significant action this season.

You've Got To Hand It To Him
Sophomore Handwalla Bwana continues to lead the Washington offense, recording a point in eight of 16 games this season. Bwana, the 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, ranks second in the Pac-12 in points (17), third in goals (6) and assists (5) and leads the conference in shots with 47. During Washington's six-match win streak, Bwana had a hand in nine of the 19 goals scored, recording five goals and four assists.

Stable Starters
Four Washington players have started all 17 matches this season: Quentin Pearson, Corban Anderson, Luke Hauswirth and Justin Fiddes. Justin Fiddes leads the Huskies with 1,486 minutes played, sitting just 69 minutes this year. Five players have recorded over 1,350 minutes (Fiddes, Saif Kerawala, Hauswirth, Garret Jackson, and Pearson) while 14 players have seen action in at least 16 matches.

Ranked Opponents
Washington is 4-2-1 in its six matches against ranked opponents this season after a big win over No. 17 Cal on Sunday. The Huskies have also recorded wins over No. 20 New Mexico (2-1), No. 22 Gonzaga (3-0), No. 24 Seattle U (2-0) and also played to a draw with No. 8 Stanford (1-1). Washington has lost to No. 6 Stanford (2-1) and to No. 24 Akron (2-0).

Help Me Out Here Blake
Blake Bodily recorded assists on two of Washington's three goals against Cal on Sunday, giving him seven for the season. The freshman now leads the team and ranks second in the conference with those seven helpers and leads all Pac-12 freshmen with 13 points (3g, 7a). The pair of points were his first since putting together an impressive run with two goals and four assists over three matches including scoring a goal and adding an assist in back-to-back games against Drexel and Santa Clara.

Running Out Of Hats
Washington has tallied two hat tricks already on the season after not recording a hat trick since 2013 (Taylor Peay vs. Santa Clara). There have been 25 hat tricks in all of NCAA Division I this season with the Dawgs recording two of them. Bwana netted the first hat trick of the season with three goals against Santa Clara. Menzies then followed with a hat trick in the very next match, tallying three times against Utah Valley.

RPI Check-In
The Huskies currently sit at No. 32 in the latest RPI, a key metric in the NCAA selection committee's arsenal. Washington is the third-highest Pac-12 team behing Stanford (#16) and UCLA (#29) and sits ahead of California (#41) as the lone other conference team in the Top 50.

In The Net
The Huskies' have allowed just 15 goals this season and posted eight shutouts thanks in large part to the play of sophomore Saif Kerawala, who came up huge against San Diego State. After missing the Cal match while serving a red card suspension, Kerawala made two big saves—the second on a penalty kick near the end of the first half. The PK stop kept an impressive streak going as UW has not allowed a spot kick goal since October 4, 2015 in a match which saw UCLA awarded three.

Spreading It Around
Ten different Huskies have scored a goal this year while 16 of the 26 players to see action have recorded a point. Scott Menzies leads the team with seven goals with Handwalla Bwana close behind with six. Elijah Rice and Kyle Coffee have each tallied four goals while Blake Bodily and Joey Parish are tied with three goals. Quentin Pearson and Luke Hauswirth have two goals each while Corban Anderson and Ryan DeGroot have one.