For the first time since 2019, Indiana and UCLA — two of men’s soccer’s blue bloods — will go head-to-head, this time in the same conference. Having won a total of 12 national titles and posting the two best winning percentages in men’s collegiate soccer history, both programs know what it takes to compete in big games. Friday night’s clash is nothing different, as the two teams have gotten hot at the right time, both making a push for the Big Ten regular season title.
Breaking down the Bruins
In their inaugural season in the Big Ten, the Bruins come into Friday 3-2-3 in conference play. Sixth-year head coach Ryan Jorden, who’s assembled a 47-37-17 record in Los Angeles, has got the Bruins rolling at the right time.
UCLA doesn’t have a stand-alone goal scorer. As a team, they’ve totaled 23 goals, with 13 of them coming in Big Ten play. The Bruins are led by Edrey Caceres and Jose Contell with four goals a piece and three game winning goals combined, respectively.
Similar to Indiana, the Bruins have had 11 different goal scorers, compared to the Hoosiers’ nine. UCLA isn’t afraid to share the ball either, as out of all the goals scored, 15 different Bruins have assisted on a goal for a total of 24.
In net, UCLA has used two different keepers. After starting the season with junior Sam Joseph, the Bruins moved to Wyatt Nelson. The sophomore from Seattle, Washington has racked up two clean sheets with 26 saves in eight games. After helping UCLA to a 1-1 draw against No. 6 Maryland on Monday, Nelson earned his second consecutive Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week honor.
Big Ten honors
It’s now been back-to-back weeks that the Hoosiers and Bruins have swept the Big Ten weekly awards. While UCLA had the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week in consecutive cycles, Indiana produced the Big Ten Defender of the Week in the same two cycles.
For the week of Oct. 15-21, Indiana’s Justin Weiss (OPOW) and Quinton Elliot (DPOW) joined UCLA’s Nelson and Tamir Ratoviz (FOW) in winning Big Ten weekly awards. Indiana’s Jansen Miller earned DPOW honors and Charlie Heuer won FOW the week of Oct. 8-14 while Nelson and Contell earned GKOW and OPOW, respectively.
After another solid week for the Hoosiers, Weiss and Elliot combined for six G/A as Indiana picked up wins against No. 18 Michigan and Michigan State, out-scoring them 8-1. The two transfers have come to life for Indiana as both have bagged a brace this month.
Coming off a 1-0-1 road trip, the Bruins were able to keep their unbeaten streak alive. Both Nelson and Ratoviz played a huge factor in doing so as the GKOW had a career high eight saves in a shut-out win against Rutgers. Offensively, it was Ratovitz who saved the day for the Bruins scoring the game-tying goal against Maryland, for his first ever FOW award.
Getting hot at the right time
You see it all the time with Todd Yeagley and his teams. He wants to play the best non-conference competition early on, in hopes of getting them ready for conference play and potential postseason play. After another slow start to the season, Yeagley’s squad has turned it on again in October.
This trend has a similar feel for UCLA, as the Bruins opened their season with nine of 13 games coming against ranked opponents at the time of the game. In those nine games UCLA stacked up a record of 4-1-4. During the last two seasons under head coach Jorden, the Bruins are 6-1-5 against Top 25 teams.
Come the month of October, the Bruins are 2-0-2 and haven't lost since Sept. 27 against Michigan State. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Indiana started its own unbeaten streak on Sept. 27, maintaining a record of 5-0-2 since their loss to Maryland. During this stretch, the Hoosiers offensive attack has come alive as they’ve scored multiple goals in each game of its run.
The Bruins are currently five points back from Indiana in the Big Ten standings and are ranked No. 25 in the NCAA’s RPI, one spot below the Hoosiers. Friday night’s match is crucial for both programs.
Kick-off is set for 10:30 p.m. You can watch the match live on the Big Ten Network.
