LA JOLLA, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer finishes the regular season on a high note topping UC San Diego, 1-0, on the road in Triton Soccer Stadium.
The match's lone tally came in the 35th minute set up on a set piece. Eddy Berumen stood over the ball near the far sideline and whipped a cross into the box. UCSD's defense intercepted it, but the ball fell into the middle of the box with Nolan DiCenzo getting eyes on it and pouncing to slide a shot through and in for the 1-0 advantage.
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From that point forward, DiCenzo and the defense carried the load. After a total of seven first half shots, each team put up 13 in the second half with UC San Diego (8-8-2, 4-5) turning five on net. Luke Pruter was in position to make the saves, and even got some help on a couple occasions by Ricardo Ibarra on the backline snuffing out a scoring opportunity early in the match, and then standing tall to clear a shot off the goalline late in the second half to nail down UCI's second shutout of the season.
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FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 1, UC SAN DIEGO 0
- DiCenzo's goal is his first and first point of his career as he's the first defender to score this year for UCI and first center back to record a point
- UCI has now built a streak of four straight matches unbeaten and two straight road victories with Saturday's win
- The Big West standings finish with UC Irvine in a tie for second place. On tiebreakers, UCI will be the No. 3 seed in the Big West Tournament and host a first round match Wednesday, Nov. 2 in Anteater Stadium vs. Sacramento State
- UCI evened the all-time series with UCSD, 7-7-2, now winning both matches since UCSD joined Division I and both by shutouts
- Saturday was UCI's first trip to UC San Diego since 1994 and are now even, 3-3-0, at their place
- Both teams put up 13 shots in the second half as UCI finished with the 18-15 advantage for the match
- UCI also held the slim edge in corner kicks, 6-5, with all 11 being taken in the second half
- Ashish Chattha was suspended from the match after accumulating five cautions in the regular season. No Anteater picked up their fifth caution in Saturday's match making everyone eligible for the tournament opener
- Luke Pruter registered five of UCI's six saves, his fourth match with five or more this season. Pruter has 59 on the year, and picked up the team's second shutout of 2022, third of his career
The stage is set for the Big West Tournament. UCI is in for the 11th time in the 14th iteration of the tournament, and will host a first round matchup vs. Sac State on Wednesday, November 2. UCI is coming off a trip to the championship match a year ago, and will need to win the program's fifth to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
