University of California, Santa Barbara

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The No. 21 UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team earned its first win in the Garden State on Monday night, defeating Rutgers, 1-0. Kaden Standish's scintillating second-half strike proved the decisive goal, while defensive heroics from Drew Kamienski and Owen Beninga secured the clean sheet and the victory.

QUOTABLE
From head coach Tim Vom Steeg: "It was good to see us battle through a tough road game," Vom Steeg said. "The team showed a lot of resilience after a poor performance and Kaden showed the quality that our group has with a timely finish."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos started strong, spending most of the first 15 minutes on the front foot and with the ball. Donovan Sessoms played a key role in that early dominance, making runs behind the Scarlet Knights' defensive line and pressing the Rutgers defenders and goalkeeper if they ever spent more than a second on the ball. In the ninth minute, Sessoms fizzed a cross across the penalty area, only narrowly missing Colby Renton's arrival at the back post. In the 14^th, Sessoms robbed a defender and played a ball through for Steinar Bjornsson to chase, only for another Scarlet Knight to recover and play it out of bounds.
 
The hosts also grew into the game more over the final 30 minutes of the half, making play much more even. Beninga was called into action in the 21^st minute when a looping pass to the back post found a Rutgers head, but the sophomore Gaucho was able to get down to his right quickly enough to claw the ball away before it crossed the goal line.
 
Santa Barbara got one more big chance before halftime, with Bjornsson getting a clean look at goal from the top of the penalty area via a planned free-kick routine in the 30^th minute, but while his drive was well-hit, it was right at the goalkeeper. The teams went into halftime deadlocked.
 
That deadlock nearly broke three minutes into the second half when the Gauchos gave the ball away in their own penalty area, but Ty Branigan was on hand to lead the recovery efforts and prevented the Scarlet Knights from testing Beninga in goal. Rutgers did test Beninga again in the 54^th minute, going one-on-one with him after a series of precise passes, but again the big sophomore made the stop, this time staying tall and making a kick save.
 
Santa Barbara created its first golden opportunity at the other end right on the hour mark, with Sessoms again forcing a turnover high up the pitch. While Zac Siebenlist could not do anything with the loose ball initially, he was able to get it to Kalle Rahbek, who lofted a cross to the back post. Bjornsson was arriving there, but from point-blank range, his header only hit the goalkeeper's chest.
 
The game only opened up more from there, and two minutes later it was all hands on deck in the Gauchos' defensive end. A Rutgers forward got the ball in space no more than 12 yards from goal, and while he was able to play it past Beninga, Kamienski had recovered back behind his goalkeeper and was able to clear the shot away before it crossed the goal line.
 
Back on the attack in the 70^th minute, Santa Barbara found the breakthrough, almost from nothing. After a throw-in, Rahbek played a pass to Bjornsson at the top of the penalty area, but the Icelander was too well-marked to have space for a shot. Instead, Bjornsson played the ball backwards into space for Standish, who curled it into the far top corner.
 
Standish's strike, his second long-range score of the season, would eventually prove to also be his second game-winning score of the season, though not without some late scares. The Scarlet Knights had a close-range shot go over the bar in the 85^th minute, and the same happened to a 90^th-minute free kick, which proved the final action of the match.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara returns to the West for their next match but remains on the road, traveling to Phoenix to play Grand Canyon on Saturday, Sept. 12. The Gauchos' next home match at Harder Stadium will be Sept. 17, when they host San Diego State.