University of California, Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team lost The Big West Championship match Friday night, 5-1, to Cal State Bakersfield. Steinar Bjornsson scored the only goal of the game for the Gauchos, who finished as the runner-up in The Big West for the third consecutive season. Friday night was the first time that Santa Barbara has conceded five goals in a game since 2017.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The visiting Roadrunners took the lead early, thanks to Big West Championship MVP Filip Arras, who hit a stunning free kick into the top corner of the goal from some 25 yards out inside six minutes. The Gauchos leveled the scores in the 26^th minute after a coaches' challenge revealed a handball against the visitors and awarded Santa Barbara a penalty kick, which Bjornsson converted. The Gauchos appealed (and challenged) for another handball penalty in the 31^st minute after Donovan Sessoms and Drew Kamienski saw their shots blocked back-to-back, but this time the on-field call of no penalty stood after review. Across the 90 minutes, Santa Barbara would end up having 13 of its 21 shots blocked by the Roadrunner defense.
 
Three minutes after the Gauchos' appeal for a second penalty was waved away, Bakersfield re-took the lead. And two minutes after their second goal, the Roadrunners scored a third. Things threatened to fall apart entirely when the visitors generated another wide-open look at goal just 20 seconds after their third score, but that shot went wide. Things ultimately did go to pieces in the 38^th minute, when a Gaucho was shown a red card.
 
Despite some good attempts to rescue the situation in the second half, Santa Barbara could not get back into the game. Sessoms had a cross somehow go past four teammates without any of them putting it goal-wards, Zac Siebenlist connected well with two shots — one a bicycle kick and the other a header — but saw both sail just high, and Bjornsson forced a great leaping save from the Roadrunner goalkeeper.
 
Bakersfield scored its fourth goal in the 58^th minute and its fifth in the 85^th.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara finishes the season with a 9-6-5 record. Entering Friday's action, the Gauchos sat at 36^th in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranking, which is a key selection criterion for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Santa Barbara did receive such a bid after losing the 2024 Big West Championship Final, but the Gauchos are set to fall in that ranking after losing to the 75^th-ranked Roadrunners. Ultimately, Santa Barbara will not know its postseason fate until Monday, Nov. 16 and the NCAA Selection Show.