SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team hosted Westmont on Saturday night in what was the 61^st Community Shield match between the Gauchos and Warriors. Because of the match's awkward position in the schedule, UC Santa Barbara gave extended minutes to players not usually in the gameday rotation. Freshman Zac Siebenlist seized his opportunity, scoring both of the Gaucho goals in the 2-2 draw.
 
FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"It was a challenge for us because even though we're carrying a lot of players, because the exhibition is during the season, we couldn't play our redshirt players, so it left us with a bit of a limited roster, but it did give us an opportunity to play guys that over the first five weeks of the season have had limited minutes," Vom Steeg said. "We got really good goalkeeping, especially in the second half … and at the end we made the decision that Zac's a player who we're not going to redshirt this year, so we put him on the field, and you can see why. We felt like last night was a little bit too high intensity … so this was a perfect opportunity for us, and it worked out well for us, honestly. It was good for us because we had a number of players get a chance to play 80, 90 minutes tonight who don't normally get the 80 or 90 minutes, and it gave us an opportunity to look at what Zac can do."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Ethan Senter nearly got the Gauchos on the board inside 30 seconds, getting on the end of the game's very first attacking passage, but his shot was saved. It was not much longer before UC Santa Barbara did get on the board though, as Siebenlist came through.
 
With Caden Vom Steeg and Kaden Standish both unavailable, Siebenlist spent the first half playing right back for the Gauchos, but that didn't stop him from being in the right place at the right time to open the scoring in the fourth minute. From a free kick that was essentially a corner, Henrique Bueno found Haruki Utsumi at the back post, and Utsumi just nodded the ball back into the middle. Siebenlist was first to it and provided a composed finish, from his right foot to the far bottom corner.  
 
But Saturday night's cross-town rivalry game was wide open all night long, with neither team establishing a period of true domination. Instead, they spent the evening running up and down the pitch, answering attacks with counterattacks. It was the kind of game that had plenty of goals in it, and Westmont scored their first in the ninth minute.
 
Teddy Hutman had already been called into action once before in the Gaucho goal, but an arcing left-footed shot from the top of the penalty area beat the UC Santa Barbara keeper to level the scores.
 
After 30 more minutes of back-and-forth soccer, the Warriors took the lead in the 38^th minute on a goal that would be called either ugly or opportunistic, depending on which team you supported. It started with a pulled-back cross that went through a crowd of players untouched, then a shot from a late-arriving Warrior at the back post. That shot rebounded off the woodwork, only to fall right at the feet of a Westmont attacker, who just had to tap it in for the 2-1 lead.
 
Siebenlist almost got UC Santa Barbara level before halftime, creating a great chance by wriggling between a pair of Westmont defenders before fizzing a pass across goal. That pass bounced right back to him, and his shot nearly crossed the line before being swept away by a recovering Warrior.
 
Having moved into his more natural striker position after the halftime interval, Siebenlist did get the Gauchos level with his second goal of the night in the 49^th minute. The freshman made a great turn to create space for himself in the penalty area, then put a left-footed shot into the top right corner.
 
Bueno, who had set up Siebenlist's second goal, nearly put the Gauchos in front in the 54^th minute, but his shot went just high. Utsumi forced a couple of saves from Westmont goalkeeper Brady Highfill in the second half as well, as did Ocean Salari, whose attempt may have been UC Santa Barbara's best chance for a winner. After scything through the Warrior defense on a run from midfield, Salari stung Highfill's palms from about 15 yards out.
 
Speaking of goalkeepers, Marcelo Guerra did good work at the other end to hold the Warriors at two. Before Siebenlist's second goal, the SMU transfer Guerra had made a big stop during a barrage of Westmont shots, and he came up huge in the game's final minutes. In a one-on-one situation, Guerra made a tremendous kick save to deny the Warriors and preserve the draw for the Gauchos.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Saturday night's 2-2 draw is only the fifth tie in 61 meetings between Westmont and UC Santa Barbara. The last draw was 29 years and one day ago, on Sept. 13, 1995. That match also finished deadlocked at 2-2.
• Saturday night's contest was an exhibition match for the Gauchos, meaning the result will not affect UC Santa Barbara's record, but also that the stats accumulated by the Gaucho players will not count.
• While Zac Siebenlist's two goals will not go toward his career total, he is unofficially the first Gaucho to have a multi-goal game in his freshman season since Finn Ballard McBride in 2019.

 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara returns to regular season action with a trip to play Utah Valley on Wednesday, Sept. 19 in their first ever trip to Orem. Kickoff from Clyde Field is set for 4 p.m. Pacific Time. The match will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.