IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer used every second of their Friday night match against Cal at Anteater Stadium to manage a 1-1 draw.
HALF EMPTY
Friday's match got started with offensive punches. Cal's Nonso Adimabua blasted a shot wide of the net in the second minute. The 'Eaters (0-2-1) answered back with a threat that ended in an skied shot from
Eddy Berumen. UCI directed their next shots on frame including
Agaton Pourshahidi redirecting
Robert Mejia's cross from the touchline toward the near post, but Cal keeper Collin Travasos did a good job to keep it out and preserve the scoreless match.
UC Irvine's best chance came in the 28th minute as
Ashish Chattha stepped up for a free kick from 30 yards out. His shot was deflected off the Cal wall and off the woodwork just missing the opening score.
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Cal (0-1-2) got a free kick of their own and made the most of it with the half coming to a close. In the 44th minute, Juan Martinez laced a sharp shot at goal that found Nate Carrasco's head flicked on by
Luke Pruter for the 1-0 Cal lead with 65 seconds to go before the half.
ANY MEANS NECESSARY
The second half was dominated by Anteater possession searching for an opening in the Cal defense. UCI collected 10 shots in the half alone of their 14 in the match. Travasos was keen to it all making three stops and bleeding out the clock with the 1-0 lead.
The 'Eaters continued to inch closer and closer to an equalizer with the best chance coming in the 86th minute. A run up the left wing was swung in to an unmarked
Francesco Montanile on the back post, but his half-volley slipped over the goal with the match still 1-0 to Cal.
UCI made one final charge up the field following a Cal foul with under 30 seconds to go.
Ashish Chattha got ahold of the ball right in front of the Anteater bench after a
Francesco Montanile throw-in and launched a high cross into the box.
Jake Means went up for it along with Travasos and got his head on the ball flicking it along just enough and past the goalline for the equalize with four seconds remaining in regulation.
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FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 1, CAL 1
The sophomore earned the team's first goal of 2022 and the fourth of his career after scoring three times as a freshman. One of his freshman strikes was very similar to Friday's when he flicked home an equalizer at UC Santa Barbara with just 15 seconds remaining in regulation.
Chattha was rewarded with an assist joining the two he posted in 2021. The Anteaters out-shot Cal, 14-9, including two saves from Anteater keeper,
Luke Pruter.
The all-time series now stands at 4-3-3 in favor of Cal as the 'Eaters put up their first result of 2022.
The weekend concludes on Monday, September 5 with a 2:00 p.m. matchup against Cornell after they defeated UC Santa Barbara, 2-1, earlier in the day.
