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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – When it comes to be tournament time, the UC Santa Barbara men's soccer team loves to put on a show at Harder Stadium.
Thursday night was no different as the Gauchos (13-4-4) successfully improved to 6-0 in NCAA Tournament first round matches at home in their 3-1 defeat of Cal.
"This was an exciting time for this group to get this opportunity. They worked hard to get here. I thought the motivation we had tonight was driven by the disappointment we had against Davis last Friday. We responded appropriately to what I thought was not a great performance by us, and we bounced back tonight," said head coach Tim Vom Steeg in the postgame press conference.
The victory, a rematch of Cal's 3-0 regular season win at UCSB on Sept. 7, was also the program's first over the Golden Bears since 2003.
In the 17th minute, junior attacker Rodney Michael split the defense and played senior left winger Thibault Candia through onto goal, and the Frenchman expertly drilled the ball past Cal goalkeeper Drake Callender, but the linesman had his flag raised for offside.
The Harder Stadium faithful were not made to wait much longer for a goal, as a minute later Candia fed Michael with a threaded pass that the Sierra Leonean smashed low into goal for UCSB to take the lead.
Despite the Gauchos' early dominance, Cal would capitalize on a set piece chance to grab the equalizer.
Cal midfielder Taylor Davila whipped a ball in from the right corner flag, and it was headed by forward Simon Lekressner into the body of Gaucho right wingback Noah Billingsley, and it bounced around the near post before Christian Gomez got the ball over the goal line as the Golden Bears tied the game up at one goal apiece in the 39th minute.
The game tightened up early in the second half, but Santa Barbara still had the upper hand.
It was a tight press from Michael in the 65th minute that forced Callender into making an error in his own penalty area, when he swung and missed on an attempted clearance, taking out Michael in the process. The referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot and issued the Cal goalkeeper a yellow card, giving UCSB a chance to retake the lead.
Candia stepped up to take the penalty, and was unhurried in his approach, waiting for Callender to pick a side as the Temple transfer walked up to the spot. As Callender went to his right, Candia slotted the ball on the opposite side of goal to put the Gauchos up once again.
The Gauchos would find a third goal in the 73rd minute, as Billingsley played a corner kick from the right corner flag short to Candia who played it back to the New Zealand U-23 international, where he dribbled it to the right edge of the box and located Baynham at the near post for the tap-in to go up 3-1.
Not to be lost in all the goalscoring is two crucial saves from sophomore goalkeeper Ben Roach, the first of which was a reaction save on a Jonathan Estrada shot from point-blank range when the Gauchos were up by a goal in the 68th minute.
The second was another close-range save on a Taylor Davila shot from the right side of the penalty area, as the second-year starter turned it around the near post for a corner kick.
Next up for the Gauchos is a trip to 12th-seeded St. Mary's for the NCAA Tournament's Second Round. They will face the Gaels in Moraga on Sunday afternoon, which kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. A live audio broadcast with Arthur Wilkie and Gaucho student-athlete Carson Vom Steeg will be available on the men's soccer schedule page, and the match will be streamed as well.
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