SAN JOSE, Calif. — The No. 16 UC Santa Barbara Men's Water Polo ended their trip to the Bay Area on a very high note, earning their biggest win of the season so far against No. 6 San Jose State in the Spartans' home pool Saturday afternoon. Not only was the 13-12 upset the Gauchos' highest-ranked win of the season, but it was a tremendous bounce-back effort after Santa Barbara had suffered a one-goal loss to LMU, 10-9, earlier in the day. Brock Zamanian had five goals to lead the Gauchos past the Spartans, giving him six on the day. Charlie Johnson had four, two in each game.
 
No. 16 UC SANTA BARBARA 9, No. 11 LMU 10
The Gauchos got on the board first, through Johnson's penalty shot, but trailed by two at the end of the first quarter of play. A 3-0 scoring run helped put the Lions up, with Luke Redoutey scoring to break it up and keep Santa Barbara close. LMU engineered another 3-0 run after that goal though, stretching from the end of the first quarter into the early stages of the second. Tyler Roller scored the only Gaucho goal in the second quarter, making it a 6-3 margin at halftime.
 
After the break, Santa Barbara started to fight back, out-scoring the Lions in each of the final two quarters, just not by enough to overturn the result. Redoutey was involved again, scoring on the Gauchos' first possession of the half. LMU responded with two goals to go up, 8-4, but Kai Ross scored twice himself in the final stages of the quarter, making it 8-6 with eight minutes left to play. With a goal from Johnson sandwiched between two Lion scores, it was 10-7 with four minutes left. Danilo Dragovic scored with 2:34 on the clock, giving Santa Barbara two minutes to get two goals, and they were still on the right pace when Zamanian dented the twine with 1:26 left in the game. However, they were not able to find that crucial 10^th goal to force overtime.
 
No. 16 UC SANTA BARBARA 13, No. 6 SAN JOSE STATE 12
The afternoon game started as a good old-fashioned barn-burner, with both teams putting up four goals in the first quarter. Again, it was Johnson to get the scoring started, and the teams traded goals from there. After San Jose State tied the game, Dragovic put the Gauchos back on top. The hosts tied it again, then it was Sam McKenzie's turn to put Santa Barbara in front. San Jose State scored next, then again to take a 4-3 lead. Ryan McManigal responded, and it was 4-4 heading into the second. Dragovic scored first to put the Gauchos back on top as neither team was able to get more than a one-goal lead. That rule held through the second quarter, with goals from Camren Simoncelli and Zamanian both being answered by the Spartans. The home side then scored just 16 seconds before the interval to carry an 8-7 lead into the break.
 
The Gauchos made quick work of that lead after halftime. Zamanian scored three goals in the third quarter alone, with McKenzie adding one as part of a 3-0 Santa Barbara run that spanned the first seven minutes of the second half, giving the Gauchos the first two-goal lead of the afternoon for either team. When the Spartans got a goal back, it took less than 30 seconds for Zamanian to put Santa Barbara back up by two. Entering the fourth quarter, the Gauchos led, 11-9.
 
Johnson made that 12-9 less than a minute into the frame, which proved to be the only goal until the two-and-a-half-minute mark. Then, it was time for the Gauchos to hold on for dear life. Zamanian scored Santa Barbara's final goal of the afternoon with 2:06 left, putting them up 13-10 at the time. Despite two San Jose State goals in 37 seconds making it a one-goal game with 1:23 left to play, Levi Lentin and the Santa Barbara defense kept the Spartans from tying it up and escaped San Jose with the huge upset.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return home to open conference play next weekend, hosting No. 7 UC San Diego on Saturday, Oct. 11 as part of Alumni, Friends and Family Weekend. The game will begin at 10:30 a.m. from Dos Pueblos High School, with the annual Nick Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament to follow immediately afterwards. The game is free to attend and open until the venue's capacity is reached. To register for the golf tournament, click here.