In a battle for second place in the Pac-10, the No. 14 Cal men's soccer team pulled out a tense and emotional win yesterday against Washington at Edwards Stadium.

The Bears once again left the result in question until late, scoring in the 88th minute, just as the game seemed headed for overtime.

With the score locked at 1-1 and Cal pouring on the pressure, a header from Davis Paul found senior Pat Marion in the box. And with a quick high kick, Marion sent the ball spiraling high up and towards the goal.

"I hit it and it deflected off the guy," Marion said. "I didn't even know it was going in until everyone was cheering. It felt pretty good, you know, it was near the end of the game and then we held them off for a few minutes after that."

Despite having two goals scored in the first half, the most memorable moment wasn't either of them. Instead it was an ugly sliding tackle by Washington defender Casey Cunningham that took out Bears junior Hector Jimenez, breaking his leg.

"(Cunningham) went in with his leg up, and Hector went in hard, he didn't go in soft," Marion said. "It was a dirty foul, but what are you going to do."

The foul earned Cunningham an immediate straight red card, putting the Huskies down a man with almost an hour still to play. And as Jimenez was carted off the field, the Bears scrambled to make some unforeseen adjustments.

"Hector's a good player, but we have some good subs," Marion said. "Hopefully they will play well and we won't miss a beat."

With the numbers advantage, Cal (9-3-5, 4-2-3 in the Pac-10) controlled the second half, keeping the ball on the opposite end and quickly shutting down any Husky counterattacks.

"The guys did really well at keeping them at bay," coach Kevin Grimes said. "It's tricky sometimes when you are down a man, you actually can give up goals because they can get a counterattack so quickly. We did a pretty good job of preventing the counterattack and not giving them any chances. It's not always as it seems that if you are up a man you should automatically dominate."

The defense shut down Washington (8-7-2, 3-4-2) during the entire second half, allowing them only a single shot after the three they had notched in the first half.

Goalkeeper Stefan Frei didn't even notch a save, although he did allow a goal in the 26th minute. Facing a Huskies attack alone, Frei came out to stop a point blank shot, only to watch as Washington forward Dylan Tucker-Gangnes slotted the rebound home.

"Jacob (Wilson) turned it over in a really bad spot," Grimes said. "The kid picked his pocket and went on a breakaway. It's not something he is normally going to do, it just happens."

Wiedeman would score the equalizer almost 10 minutes later as he collected a pass in the box, dribbling past defenders to send the ball rifling into the bottom corner to beat the keeper.

Tags: CAL MEN'S SOCCER, KEVIN GRIMES, PAT MARION, DAVIS PAUL, HECTOR JIMENEZ