The Tritons had a great showing in the west coast national showcase against UCLA, USC, and South Bay. Although suffering no defeats, the Tritons would not advance past the group stage via goal differential.

In the first half against UCLA, the Tritons opted to sit back and play patient defense. The team could not seem to find any offensive groove, and looked very panicked on the ball. Most of the first half was played on the Triton’s side of the field. Eventually, the UCSD defense broke as UCLA scored a wicked shot from far out to put the Tritons down 0-1.

UCSD played a much better second half. After gathering themselves, the latter half of the game was much more even. The boys possessed the ball a lot better, and arguably outplayed the bruins. Midfielder Luca Scotzniovsky would level the score in the dying minutes of the game to skillfully bring a misfired ball down and slot it past the keeper. The game would end 1-1 shortly after.

UCSD played the USC Trojans in their second game, trying to put in a lot of goals in order to advance out of the group stage. Unlike the first game, The Tritons came out strong possession-wise in the first half, but a back line miscue led to multiple onside trojans and no one to defend them,which culminated in a goal for USC. 

The Triton’s continued to create chances in the second half. Forward Paul Jasper played a beautiful ball into midfielder William Ross for the equalizer midway through the second half. After back and forth between the two teams, the game came down to the final minutes where midfielder Paul Bouige found a shot in a crowded box to score an exhilarating late winner for UCSD. 2-1 Tritons.

In their final game, the Triton’s played South Bay, and by far played their best game. UCSD dominated all game, and notably had over 10 corner kicks. UCSD had many chances to score in the first half, but just couldn’t find the net. 

The storyline was the same in the second half, the Triton’s controlling the game but unable to score. UCSD switched to a three back in hopes to add offensive firepower, and were eventually rewarded with a goal by forward Yanis Chenna. Although having many chances, the Tritons only beat South Bay 1-0, which would not be enough to put them through to the knockout stage of the tournament.