UCLA and UC Santa Barbara Advance to Final

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A team that nearly wrote itself off midway through the season and a player who walked onto his team helped set up an all-California final at the College Cup.

Sophomore Eric Avila scored the deciding goal on UC-Santa Barbara's fifth penalty kick and the unseeded Gauchos beat Wake Forest 4-3 in the tiebreaker Saturday to advance to the national title game.

The Gauchos face UCLA on Sunday after the Bruins were led by non-scholarship freshman David Estrada's two goals in a 4-0 upset over Virginia in the first semifinal.

UC-Santa Barbara (17-7-0) was mired in a disappointing season with a 7-6 record when coach Tim Vom Steeg told his players he planned to use younger players to prepare for the 2007 season if a turnaround did not come quickly. It did as the Gauchos won 10 of their next 11 games including Saturday which put them in the title game for the second time in three years.

"It's been fun. It's been an adventure for sure," said senior midfielder Bryan Byrne. "We didn't really expect 13 game in (the season) to be in this situation. Thankfully, we got to this stage."

Second-seeded Wake Forest (18-4-3) had a chance to prolong its season until freshman Zack Schilawski kicked his penalty shot well over the cross bar to end the game. The teams played to a scoreless tie through regulation and two 10-minute overtimes.

The first game was not nearly as close after Estrada scored twice in 67 seconds for UCLA. He powered through a physical defense during both scoring plays to net his 11th and 12th goals of the season. Estrada is part of the top freshman class in the nation only because UCLA coaches offered him a shot to walk-on to the program. His performance this season and certainly in the semifinal game might persuade coach Jorge Salcedo to extend him a scholarship offer.

"That's for the coach to decide," Estrada said. "I've been working hard the whole season and I'm very fortunate that he gave me an opportunity to start and be on this team."

Both goals came in heavy traffic in the fourth-seeded Virginia box. Estrada worked a give-and-go with Kyle Nakazawa before navigating through two defenders and putting the ball to the left of keeper Ryan Burke at the 26:06 mark to give No. 8 UCLA a 1-0 lead. Estrada's second goal was more of an individual effort. His shot glanced off Burke's outstretched hands and trickled into the right corner of the goal with 24:59 showing on the clock as UCLA (14-5-4) went up 2-0. Chance Myers and Michael Stephens added late goals to put away fourth-seeded Virginia (17-4-1).

The semifinals, originally scheduled for Friday, were postponed because of a major storm that dumped snow and ice throughout the St. Louis area. At the start of the first game, the temperature was 29 degrees. The temperatures make for an interesting final with two West Coast teams facing each other. It's the second game between the two this season with the Bruins winning the first 3-1 on October 5.

It also guarantees the much-heralded Atlantic Coast Conference won't be able to follow up member Maryland's title run a year ago. The ACC has only two national titles in the past 13 seasons, a stat not lost on UC-Santa Barbara's Chris Pontius. "Both teams take big pride in it," he said. "Most of the time they're (ranked) over us because they don't think the competition out here in California is as good as the ACC. ACC teams are good, but so are we."