If the NCAA Tournament played out as expected, the UCLA men’s soccer team would have played its last home match against Delaware Sunday.

However, thanks to No. 4-seeded Boston College being upset, No. 13-seeded UCLA gets to host unseeded Rutgers on Sunday night at Drake Stadium in what will be its last homestand of the year.

Coming off a 1-0 win over the Fightin’ Blue Hens in which junior forward Chandler Hoffman scored the go-ahead goal in the 83rd minute, the Bruins are just happy to be able to play at home again.

The Boston College-Rutgers game was played earlier than the UCLA-Delaware game, so UCLA already knew what awaited them come game’s end.

When asked about what he thought of the upset allowing the Bruins to play at home, Hoffman said with a smile, “I’m stoked about that. It’s great to be able to play here. An across-the-country flight is never fun. So playing here is a great opportunity for us and we’ll be ready come Sunday.”

Although UCLA dominated possession for most of the game against Delaware, it must be prepared to execute more efficiently to put itself in a more commanding position in this game.

The Bruins have been controlling games this season but weren’t able to establish a lead in several instances – often leading to nail-biting finishes.

Against Delaware, junior forward Ryan Hollingshead insisted that the game was theirs to seize and explained that UCLA needed to avoid being sent into extra minutes.

“We were just trying to give it everything we can and at that point not give up a goal and push forward to get our own goal,” he said. “We didn’t want to go to overtime because anything can happen then.”

Rutgers demonstrated how anything could happen in extra minutes as its last game went into penalty kicks with Boston College to determine the winner. The Scarlet Knights eventually put down the No. 8-ranked Eagles.

Hollingshead also reiterated how successful the Bruins have been at home in the postseason.

“The last two years, the reason we’ve lost is because we’re on the road. We win every game at home and then we go on the road and lose. So any game at home that we can get, as many extra games we can get at home, is monumental. So we’re excited to play at home.

“Obviously we have our home crowd, our home field that we’re used to and no travel, and all that stuff is just great for us,” Hollingshead added.

The Bruins and Scarlet Knights haven’t faced each other since 1990, when they played each other in the NCAA National Championship game that year.

It was a star-studded affair with internationally respected players such as Bruin goalkeeper Brad Friedel and Scarlet Knight Alexi Lalas, both of whom have had successful professional careers.

After both teams went scoreless through regulation and two overtime periods, UCLA prevailed 4-3 in penalty kicks.

It was Salcedo who converted the winning penalty kick to bring home the national championship.