SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team had to work hard for it Sunday night, but they secured their sixth win and fourth clean sheet of the season by defeating Portland, 3-0. The Gauchos dominated the first half, then had to battle in the second after Peleg Brown was sent off in the 56^th minute. The hard-earned result showed the nearly 4,700 Gaucho fans in attendance, over 3,000 of them students, just what this team is made of.
 
FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"We worked really, really hard, and it's an impressive win," Vom Steeg said.  "We got a great performance from all four (defenders) and Mitzner made a couple big saves that we needed.
 
The third goal was huge for us. It felt like, okay, we might have to give one up, but at least we're going to win the game. Great night, good crowd. I thought we played a great first half, and then unfortunately with the red card … we overcame it, we battled for the whole second half, and the shutout with a man down is pretty impressive."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara was in complete control early, spending what felt like the entire first 30 minutes in possession and putting pressure on the Portland defense. The Gauchos nearly broke through inside 12 minutes after the Pilots made a bad pass in their own end, but Alexis Ledoux's shot was blocked. In total, Santa Barbara fired 15 shots at the Portland goal in the first 45 minutes.
 
When the breakthrough finally came, it was Ledoux to provide it, but credit goes to Brown. The Gauchos' freshman fullback was brought down inside the penalty area in the 34^th minute, and Santa Barbara was awarded its first spot kick of the season. The captain Ledoux stepped up and buried it in the top right corner, beyond the outstretched hand of Portland's goalkeeper.
 
Ledoux was involved again in the Gauchos' second goal, just two minutes later. On a counterattack, the Frenchman's lobbed cross made it all the way across the Pilot penalty area to Kaden Standish. Standish took a touch to make space, then turned and whacked the ball goalwards, sneaking it between the legs of both a Portland defender and the goalkeeper.
 
The Pilots did nearly get a goal back just a minute before halftime, but Calle Mollerberg made a great block to clear away a shot that had goalkeeper David Mitzner beaten.
 
Portland came out firing in the second half, earning a free kick no more than 20 yards from goal inside the first minute after the break. The wall did its job for the Gauchos, and the Pilots squandered the rebound, firing it some distance high and wide.
 
The complexion of the game changed in the 56^th minute, when what had been a chippy contest throughout boiled over. Brown made a bad tackle, but Portland's Nick Fernandez responded by shoving a Gaucho as two other Pilots shouted at Brown. Both sides then exchanged shoves, and once the brouhaha subsided and the referee conducted a video review, Brown was sent off, with Portland's Fernandez and Santa Barbara's Eddie Villeda each receiving yellow cards.
 
The Pilots thought they had capitalized on their man advantage in the 66^th minute when they put the ball in the back of the net, but it was called back for offside. And while Portland was certainly in control of the final half hour of the match, the Gauchos did not lie down, nor were they content to sit back and park the bus, still making forays forward and threatening to score a third goal.
 
Santa Barbara made good on those threats right on the 70^th minute, as Standish found Haruki Utsumi from a corner kick, and the center back headed home his second career goal to make it 3-0.
 
With the result seemingly secured, the Gauchos still had a shutout to preserve. Mitzner made a strong save in the 76^th minute to swat away a shot that was headed for the top of his goal, and while he was beaten in the 78^th, it was once again called back for offside. The Gaucho defense dug in from there and did not allow another shot on target.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• A total of 4,960 fans attended Sunday night's match, UC Santa Barbara's largest crowd at a non-Blue-Green Rivalry game since 2018, when 5,235 watched the Gauchos defeat UCLA. Over 3,200 of Sunday night's attendees were UC Santa Barbara students.
• Alexis Ledoux's penalty kick goal was his seventh of the season, giving him a 0.875 goals-per-game average. If he keeps that rate up over the rest of the regular season alone, he would become the first Gaucho to score 15 goals in a season since Nick DePuy in 2015 and just the eighth to ever do it.
• David Mitzner earned his fourth career shutout Sunday night, doing so against his former school. With the clean sheet, he lowers his season goals-against average to just 0.63 and his career GAA to 0.88. If he can maintain those rates through the end of the year, it would be the second-best single-season GAA and fifth-best career GAA in program history.

 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will head up the coast to face Cal Poly in the non-conference leg of the Blue-Green Rivalry on Saturday, Sept. 28. Kickoff from Mustang Memorial Field is set for 3 p.m., with the action to be broadcast live on ESPN+ and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.