Bruins Blank 'Bama, 3-0, to Advance to Title Game
UCLA will play for the school's 120th NCAA title on Monday against North Carolina.
The Bruins came out playing an aggressive game. In the first 25 minutes, UCLA took nine shots to the Crimson Tide’s four, but the Bruins couldn’t get any of those shots into the net. As a result, the match was tied 0-0.
In the 27th minute, it looked like Alabama had gotten the first goal of the game, but an offside call nullified the goal and it remained scoreless.
But then, in the 30th minute, sophomore defender Quincy McMahon passed the ball across to Reilyn Turner who was in front of the net and tapped in home to give UCLA a 1-0 lead.
As it turns out, that would be the game-winning goal for UCLA. For Turner, it was her seventh game-winner of the season, moving her into a tie for the most in the country.
While that would be the score at the break, the Bruins weren’t done.
The game remained 1-0 until the 52nd minute. That’s the point where McMahon took a shot from the left side just inside the 18-yard box and she managed to sneak it past Bama goalkeeper McKinley Crone to give the Bruins an insurance goal and a 2-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Madelyn Desiano hammered home a left-footer to put the game out of reach.
From there, the Bruins took a defensive posture as they effectively went into a soccer version of the North Carolina “Four Corners” offense as they played keep away for the final 36 minutes of this match.
Bama did have one final chance to score as the clock ticked down when Riley Tanner took the Crimson Tide’s final shot with four seconds left, but Bruin ‘keeper Lauren Brzykcy fell on the ball for her seventh save of the match completing the clean sheet.
UCLA will now play the North Carolina Tar Heels for the 2022 College Cup National Championship on Monday afternoon at 3 pm PT on ESPNU.
Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC#120!!
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What a great performance. Alabama might have had the edge in possession for much of the match, but they had nowhere to go in the final third as the Bruin defense was fantastic all night. And then the Bruins were fast and creative and took advantage on the offensive end, and could have had 2 or 3 more except for some great saves by the Bama tender. It was never close. Bring that game on Monday, Bruins!!