On Saturday January 26, the Tritons returned for the second half of their league season. The original season restart was meant to be played at UCLA two weekends prior, but the devastating North Los Angeles fires meant the match had to be rescheduled. The Tritons took on UC Irvine away from home and arrived prepared, feeling confident in their skills following three weeks of intense post-winter break training before the match. The Tritons were keen to try out their new formation choice, opting to switch from the classic 4-3-3 to a more attacking 3-4-3 layout. 

The Tritons lined up with: Jorge Mendoza in goal; Alejandro Covarrubias, Jaydon Lovell and David Contreras in defense; Antonio Lopez, Lucas Venetoulias, Jorge Rodriguez and Henry Rose in midfield; lastly, Dayne Kovatchev, Kalani Takamura and Nick Shor in attack. 

Immediately from kickoff, the Tritons established dominance over the match. Strong tackles and organized defense formed the basis of the Tritons charge for the championship last year and this year the fire had returned. A couple of early chances broke the way of the Tritons after their strong pressure saw the UCI defensive line make a few misplaced passes; one led directly to Rose who, with one touch, put Kovatchev through one-on-one with the central defender. Kovatchev managed to put in a cross which looped over the goalkeeper into Shor’s path. His effort grazed the outside of the goal and was a sign of things to come. A few more well-constructed attacks led Takamura, Shor and Kovatchev to promising chances in front of goal, none of which penetrated the back of the net to the dismay of the Tritons. Vismay Manoj and Arya Abolmaali were among the substitutes that came on midway through the first half to give the Tritons a much needed push to the first goal. Inevitably, another good UCSD press saw Manoj retain the ball on the edge of the field with Kovatchev wide open in front of him, one-on-one with the last defender. Manoj put the ball on a plate for Kovatchev who took a striding touch past the last defender to give himself that half yard of space to bury it in the bottom right side netting. A much needed goal for the Tritons as the scoreline did not reflect the one-sidedness of the match. The Tritons closed out the half without a single shot conceded to UCI and maintained what felt like a comfortable 1-0 lead. 

UCSD came out buzzing for the second half, eager and hungry for more goals to stamp their authority over the match. Chances were flowing left and right but the final product was missing until Manoj found himself a yard before the penalty spot with the ball looping over him. This is what footballers dream of! A gasp and silence followed by the rustling of the net, which sent the entire UCSD bench into hysteria as Manoj buried the ball with a very well executed bicycle kick. Once the second UCSD goal went in, UCI seemed to become completely deflated and lacking the resolve needed to mount a comeback in the game. This second goal did not stop the Tritons, though, who continued attacking: they pummeled the UCI goal with shots and played in a series of crosses that caused havoc in the UCI box. Shor, Lopez, Kovatchev and Takamura were among the names to try their luck for the third but all of their attempts were unsuccessful. Ultimately, the match ended with UCSD winning 2-0 over UCI. 

The Tritons look forward to their busy schedule next weekend when they will host their UCSD Invitational tournament on their campus. The tournament will be an opportunity for the Tritons to continue developing their new system, as well as to potentially play against a mixture of familiar opponents and of newer teams that have yet to feature on the Tritons’ schedule.