Bruins Gameday: UCLA-Maryland at Home Depot Center Tonight & More

South Bay product and last year's team MVP Kyle Nakazawa leads the No. 14-ranked Bruins tonight in a rare 7 o'clock game against No. 8-ranked Maryland at Carson's Home Depot Center live on Fox Soccer Channel.

Tickets are $10 adults, $5 students and kids. Parking is free.

UCLA returns six All-Pac-10 players from last year including the team's top two scorers, Maxwell Griffin (nine goals) and Palos Verdes Estates' Nakazawa (three goals, seven assists).

Also returning: 2006 season leading scorer David Estrada (12 goals) while the midfield also includes Jason Leopoldo. Manning the net is U.S. Under-20 National Team starter Brian Perk, who has five shutouts in 27 career starts during his two seasons.

Notable: With a victory tonight UCLA Coach Jorge Salcedo can record the 50th win of his college coaching career.

It's the third time UCLA have played at Home Depot Center. The Bruins played in the first collegiate game at the venue in 2003 crushing Cal State Fullerton 5-0 behind a Matt Taylor hat trick and two goals and three assists from Chad Barrett. UCLA also played to a scoreless tie there in 2004 with Loyola Marymount.

I plan to blog from the game.

On Sunday UCLA will host a doubleheader on campus, taking on UC Riverside at 12:30 pm, followed by Maryland-California at 3 pm. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for youth. UCLA students are free with valid ID.

In college games Thursday:
The No. 11-ranked Cal State Dominguez Hills men beat No. 20 Grand Canyon 1-0, while the No. 13-ranked women defeated their female counterparts 3-1 in Carson.

In other college games this weekend:
*Three games are scheduled today at Matador Soccer Field, with the Cal State Northridge women playing Southern Utah at 11:30 a.m., followed by a men's game between Cal State Fullerton and Alabama A&M. At 4:30 p.m. the Matador men take on Georgetown. They finish the busy weekend with a 2:30 p.m. game against Alabama A&M back in Northridge.
*The No. 1-ranked USC women are in Oregon for the weekend, playing Portland State and No. 6 Portland, while the No. 2-ranked UCLA women play Portland Saturday and Portland State Monday.
*The Loyola Marymount women are similarly on the road facing No. 4-ranked Notre Dame today and on Sunday 12th-ranked West Virginia, the defending Big
East champions.
*The LMU men host their annual Fall Classic Tournament beginnning today.
* Pepperdine plays today at 3 p.m. in Malibu against Arizona State ans Sunday against UC Santa Barbara. Pepperdine lost its season-opener last weekend 1-0 against Cal State Fullerton.