SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis Men's Soccer teams played an instant classic in Saturday's Big West Semifinal, complete with a "Cinderella story" goal from Dominick Phanco. The redshirt junior put home his first career score, the decisive goal in a 3-2 Gaucho victory. Phanco's moment capped a flurry of goals for the Gauchos, with Calle Mollerberg and Kaden Standish finding the net within three minutes of each other to turn around a 1-0 halftime deficit before Phanco fired home nine minutes later. The win sends No. 1 seed UC Santa Barbara into The Big West Championship Final, their second in as many years, which they will host against No. 2 seed UC Irvine on Friday, Nov. 14.
 
FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"I've learned that there is very little that I say [in terms of halftime speeches] because most of the players already at this point in the year kind of know it," Vom Steeg said. "But you don't always know what kind of response you're going to get. You're always looking for moments and times and I've spent more time this year dealing with individual players than necessarily the collective group, but what's been unique about our experience this year is we have had players who might have checked themselves out for not having a lot of minutes, we've had a lot of (those) players really stayed after it. So, you can give the speech … you can say that all day long, but ultimately a player has to have enough character and believe in the fact that they may get an opportunity … Dom, it's kind of a Cinderella story in terms of him getting that goal; that's the culmination of him showing up every day at training and playing hard, even though the minutes weren't there at the beginning of the year."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
With revenge on their mind after the Aggies had upset them in last year's championship final, the Gauchos were on the attack early, being denied by only the offside flag on a couple of lobbed passes over the top in the early going, adding some long-range drives to the attack as well. Jacob Blach saw his shot from distance saved, while Eddie Villeda put one not too far wide inside the first five minutes. Santa Barbara's best early opportunity was snuffed out by a great point-blank save after Steinar Bjornsson had latched onto a 50-yard lob pass from Mollerberg to get in one-on-one with the Aggie goalkeeper.
 
Gaucho goalkeeper Owen Beninga was not called upon until the 13^th minute, when he showed off the fundamentals on a diving catch to control a shot that was kneed his direction. No more than a minute later, the Santa Barbara barrage was back on at the other end of the pitch, when Standish missed just wide on a 35-yard free kick. He had an even more spectacular attempt in the 24^th minute when a loose ball floated his direction and he attempted an acrobatic scissor kick, putting it only a couple inches on the wrong side of the post.
 
The first real heroics of the match for Santa Barbara were required to keep their visitors out in the 34^th, when Beninga found himself out of position, all the way at the top of his 18-yard box. The freshman goalkeeper made a save to keep the Aggies from putting the ball in an essentially empty net, but the rebound stayed with UC Davis. The visitors floated a cross towards the back post and while the ensuing header had Beninga beat, Drew Kamienski was cool as ever and perfectly placed to clear the shot off the line. While the Gauchos survived that moment, it was only the beginning of a storm for them to weather. Mollerberg made a great sliding block in the 37^th minute, and Beninga made a great one-on-one save in the 38^th to keep the Aggies out. However, Santa Barbara could not clear their lines from the resulting corner and a recycled ball led to Davis' first goal of the evening.
 
The Aggies' score remained the only one of the first half, though Bjornsson nearly leveled things 30 seconds before halftime, weaving his way between defenders inside the penalty area but pulling his shot wide right.
 
The Gauchos were even more aggressive to start the second half than they were to start the first, and while it nearly paid dividends as Buba Fofanah only just missed despite shooting from a wildly narrow angle in the 51^st minute, it also nearly cost a second goal. It was Blach's turn to don the hero's cape in the 53^rd minute, racing back to chase down an Aggie after a defensive mistake gave the visitors a two-on-one opportunity.
 
But with what was now a back three of Blach, Kamienski and Mollerberg rewarding Vom Steeg's faith that they alone could keep the Aggies out, the Gaucho offense was able to knock on the door with steadily increasing urgency. Bjornsson rattled the woodwork from range in the 55^th minute, and Santa Barbara finally broke through in the 58^th. After Mollerberg saw his header blocked from a corner kick, the rebound fell right back at his feet for him to poke home. Three minutes later, Eddie Villeda's cross was knocked away by an Aggie defender but fell right at Standish's feet, allowing the winger to fire first-time, his shot too powerful for Davis' goalkeeper, who watched it dribble away from his hands and into the net.
 
With the door now wide open, the Gauchos kicked it the rest of the way off its hinges with their prettiest move of the night in the 70^th minute. Phanco dispossessed an Aggie in midfield, gifting the ball to Ramses Martinez, who played it ahead to Fofanah. Fofanah played the ball across the face of goal and, with Siebenlist drawing the attention of Davis' defenders, Phanco was wide open to finish from 12 yards out.
 
Phanco admitted after the match that his first thought after scoring was "oh my gosh, let's defend," and the Gauchos did just that. Beninga made three saves in the final 15 minutes of action, which proved to be enough even though the Aggies managed to get a goal back with eight minutes left to play. The Santa Barbara back line helped out too, making three blocks in those crucial final 15 minutes to help secure the result.  
 
FROM THE STUDENT-ATHLETES
Kaden Standish on what went through his mind after scoring: "The first thing that went through my head was my grandpa, who passed away recently, October 9, and a lot of what I'm doing this season is for him," Standish said. "I have my wrist tape for him; he always supported me, he went to all my games, he was always watching on ESPN+, and the last thing he said to me was 'I am proud of you,' so that's a lot of what pushes me to be a little better, going into this game, knowing if I don't give everything, it's kind of letting him down, letting my family down, letting the team down. Knowing that I have to do more than what I did last year, I have to do more than what I did the previous game is a good mentality for me, and I use that."
 
Dominick Phanco on his goal: "Well, I saw Buba one-v-one on the side and was like, 'he's definitely going to beat him,' and then Zac made a perfect near-post run and I was screaming at Zac to let the ball go. I was like, please, please leave it," Phanco said. "I was wide open and then just tucked it in, near post. Not much was going through my head, honestly, just run to my teammates."
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• While Phanco's goal will be the famous one, he was not the only Gaucho to open his account Saturday night, as Mollerberg's game-tying goal was the first of his career.
• It was a career night for Beninga in goal too, albeit a frantic one. The rookie faced 24 shots from the Aggies, seven more than his previous busiest evening, and made six saves, a new career high.
• With the win, Santa Barbara has extended its unbeaten streak to 13 games, the longest in the Tim Vom Steeg era. The only Gaucho squad to go longer without losing is the 1982 group, which went 17 games unbeaten.
• Saturday's win was the Gauchos' 12^th in Big West Championship matches, all of which have come at Harder Stadium.

 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will host The Big West Championship Final at Harder Stadium on Friday, Nov. 14, against UC Irvine. It is a meeting of the top two seeds and an exact rematch of the last conference final that the Gauchos won. In 2021, No. 1 seed Santa Barbara beat No. 2 seed UC Irvine, 4-0, at Harder Stadium.