CORVALLIS, Ore. – Senior John Swenson put home his third career goal in the fifth minute and junior Emery Welshman extended his assist streak to four consecutive games, but No. 15 UCLA (9-3-1, 4-0-0 Pac-12) scored with less than a minute to go in the second half and the Oregon State men’s soccer team (3-7-1, 1-2-0 Pac-12) lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to the Bruins on Sunday afternoon.

“I thought it was a tough result because I thought we were the aggressor,” Oregon State head coach Steve Simmons said.  “I thought we did enough to win the game today.”

Just over four minutes into the contest, Roberto Farfan took a Beaver corner from the far side of the field and sent a curving ball into the box.  A scramble ensued in front of the net and OSU used its height and leaping ability to its advantage, as a succession of headers from Welshman to Mike Reckmeyer to Swenson deposited the ball past UCLA’s keeper and gave the Beavers a 1-0 lead.

The mark was Swenson’s first goal since he scored a pair in a 3-1 win over San Jose State on Sept. 4, 2009 and Welshman tied Ryan Johnson (2003) for second place in Oregon State history with assists in four consecutive games.  The assist from Reckmeyer was the first of his career.

UCLA began to put some pressure on Oregon State’s defense near the end of the first half when, with five minutes remaining, freshman Will Seymore stopped the Bruins’ Victor Chavez on a breakaway and stole the ball at the top of the box.

“For us, we have to get goal support,” Simmons said.  “We’re creating chances, but the chances aren’t falling in.  It’s amazing what happens when you score goals, all of a sudden your defenders play better [because] they don’t think that everything is all on their shoulders.  I thought our defense did a fantastic job today.”

The Bruins finally broke through at the 43:37 mark when Kelyn Rowe took a pass from 30 yards out and slipped the ball past Steve Spangler to tie things up heading into intermission.

Oregon State had five shots in the second half, the best of which was with 28 minutes remaining in regulation when Swenson and Colin Mitchell played a nice two-man game to set up Welshman just inside the center of the box.  UCLA keeper Brian Rowe came out of the net and just barely got a piece of Welshman’s shot to guide it over the crossbar and preserve the tie.

“If you’re out-playing and out-chancing UCLA then you’re doing pretty well and that’s what we did today,” Simmons said.  “We just didn’t get the result.”

With thirty seconds remaining in the game, UCLA’s Victor Munoz scored to the far post just under a diving Spangler to hand the Beavers the gut-wrenching defeat.

“When it’s all said and done we have to finish off games and finish our chances,” Simmons commented.

Oregon State will be back in action next weekend when it travels to the Bay Area to take on Cal and Stanford.  The Beavers will match up with the Golden Bears on Friday at 4 p.m. and will take on the Cardinal on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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