SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team's 12-game home unbeaten streak ended on Friday night, as the Gauchos were defeated, 2-0, by UC Davis in The Big West Championship Final. Santa Barbara out-shot the Aggies, 17-7, but could not put any in the back of the net.
 
FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"Tonight, I was hopeful that with our guys back we might be able to get going again, but we didn't do it," Vom Steeg said. "There is a level of frustration because I thought this was one of the best soccer-playing teams I've coached in a long time. I think there's something to be said about playing 18, 20 games in a three-month season, and it's really, really hard to maintain that level of play and intensity through the whole course of the season."
 
"We played some great games, we played some really good soccer, we did a lot of good things, Alexis (Ledoux) had a crazy good season, there's all those positives. The negative is that we just couldn't put our best team on the field for 18 games."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Befitting Friday night's prize-fight billing, the two teams spent the first 15 minutes feeling each other out, offering jabs but not landing any significant body blows. The Gauchos took on their usual style of playing possession, wanting to keep the ball and pass their way up the field, while the Aggies attempted to lob, chip or launch passes over the heads of Santa Barbara's defensive line from most anywhere on the field.
 
However, when the visitors did land their first big left hook in the 20^th minute, it was not from a ball over the top. The Aggies' opening goal started with a mazy run down the Gaucho's left flank, from which Davis' winger cut inside between two defenders and played a pass to his striker, whose back was to goal. He did well to turn around and shoot for the opening score.
 
The Gauchos upped their game in response, searching for an equalizer. Four minutes after the goal, Kaden Standish's cross was deflected, forcing the Aggie goalkeeper to make a tremendous one-handed save. The ball stayed in play and fell to the feet of Eddie Villeda, but his follow-up attempt was blocked.
 
With the game opening up, the Gauchos found themselves in a couple of tough spots defensively as the first half ticked away, with goalkeeper David Mitzner doing tremendously to deny the Aggies' goal-scorer in a one-on-one situation in the 34^th minute. However, Davis would get a second goal on the stroke of half time. The 44^th-minute score came from essentially nothing, a cross to the top of the penalty area, two touches to turn and a shot led to a second goal for the same Aggie on the night.
 
A minute later, the teams headed into the locker room for half time.
 
As frustrating as the first half was for Santa Barbara, the second was tenfold. The Gauchos found just about every way to not score in the second 45 minutes, with shots going just wide, just high or being saved or blocked; they even had a handful of penalty kick appeals waved away.
 
Ten minutes into the second half, Alexis Ledoux was chopped down in the penalty area but the referee's whistle stayed quiet, and it was just as quiet a minute later when Zac Siebenlist was bumped into an knocked over. The loudest shouts from the Santa Barbara supporters came in the 84^th minute, when Isaiah Barber received an ice-hockey-like body check in the penalty while neither he nor his defender had a play on the ball, but again, there was no whistle.
 
More frustratingly, the Gauchos created plenty of actual chances without needing the referee's intervention but were not able to put any of them away. Standish took an artfully curled shot toward the top left corner in the 64^th minute that went just high, and Ramses Martinez made an incisive run to get through on goal in the 66^th but put it the wrong side of the near post. Later, in the 77^th minute, Siebenlist got on the end of a cross at the far post but put his shot wide from what was a tight angle.
 
A few minutes prior, Siebenlist had nearly scored with an audacious flicked shot after a corner kick, but his arcing attempt was brilliantly saved by the UC Davis goalie. The corner had been set up when Isaiah Barber had a point-blank shot just in front of goal blocked by a sliding tackle.
 
Barber was denied again a minute later. Ledoux got into a one-on-one with the Aggie goalkeeper and while his shot was saved, the rebound fell to Barber with the goalmouth gaping. However, an Aggie recovered in time to clear Barber's follow-up shot off the line. Santa Barbara's final shot on target came in the 86^th minute, with Caden Vom Steeg putting a header right in the bottom corner of the goal, only to watch Davis' goalie get down in time to keep it out of the net.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• With an attendance of 2,838 on hand at Harder Stadium, Friday night's match was the highest attended Big West Championship Final since 2015's championship contest. That game drew a crowd of 3,242, also at Harder Stadium.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos now must wait with fingers crossed as they will not find out their postseason fate until the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. PST. Without an automatic bid as a conference champion, Santa Barbara would have to be selected as one of 26 at-large teams to compete in this year's NCAA Tournament.