Ledoux notches 4th brace as UCSB takes sole possession of first place in Big West

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - With four games left to play, the UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team stands alone atop The Big West. Now the only team still unbeaten in conference play, the Gauchos brought their points total up to 11 with a 3-1 defeat of UC Davis on Wednesday night. Nicolas Willumsen scored his second goal in as many games to get things started, then Alexis Ledoux conjured his fourth brace of the season to bring down the curtain.

FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"I thought the guys were excited to play tonight," Vom Steeg said. "I challenged them today before we played this game, we know we can play better, we know we can pass better, we know we can move better, and we did that.

"We are very capable of playing like we did tonight. We do it in training, we do it in certain moments, tonight was the longest sustained period of time where we played at a higher level that I don't think anyone in the conference, certainly, can stay with us."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos raced out of the gates, putting together one of their best halves of the season and getting one of their earliest goals of the year as a reward. After being caught offside twice inside the first five minutes, Santa Barbara's offense got it right on the third attempt, slicing through the Davis defense in the sixth minute. Ocean Salari chipped a perfect ball over the top of the Aggie back line, which Filip Basili raced onto. It took one touch for the Norwegian to half-volley it across the face of goal, where his Danish teammate Willumsen was charging to meet it with a karate kick into the back of the net.

The Gauchos continued to dominate possession and the flow of the game, racking up a total of 11 first-half shots. Willumsen nearly got his second goal of the night in the 23rd minute, getting his head on a curling half-cross-half-shot attempt from Henrique Bueno as it bent toward the back post, but the Dane's deflecting crashed off the crossbar.

Three minutes later, Santa Barbara did get their second goal, with Ledoux starting and finishing another precise passing sequence. The Frenchman left the ball with Basili just outside the Aggie penalty area, then darted off. Basili played it over to Peleg Brown in wide open space on the left flank, and Brown fizzed a first-touch cross into the box. Despite being the shortest man on the field, the five-foot-six Ledoux got his head to the ball to direct it into the far corner.

The Gauchos could have gotten two more goals before halftime, as Kaden Standish got around the Aggie goalkeeper in the 36th minute and Andrew Kamienski thumped a solid header goal-ward from a corner kick in the 39th, but both were denied by a Davis defender getting in the way.

What was a comfortable halftime lead for Santa Barbara became a little less comfortable around the hour mark, as the Aggies found their way back into the game and eventually found the back of the net. A free kick played into the penalty area and a header to meet it gave Davis their goal in the 60th minute, but the re-introduction of Willumsen in the 69th helped the Gauchos regain control.

Just over a minute after coming on, Willumsen tested the Aggie goalie from distance, and in the 73rd minute, the Gauchos got their insurance. Nemo Philipp played a simple pass to Ledoux in some space at the top of the Aggie penalty area, and the Frenchman needed just one touch to get behind the Davis defenders while also turning his hips 180 degrees to face the goal, then one more touch to finish past the keeper into the bottom corner.

Ledoux's goal would prove to be the dagger, though Philipp did test the keeper himself in the 78th minute. In the 81st, Gaucho goalie David Mitzner answered one final test to keep the win comfortable, stopping a low line-drive shot from the top of the penalty area.

BY THE NUMBERS
With now 12 goals on the season, Alexis Ledoux is tied for second among all Division-I players; Nine of those goals at home, meaning Ledoux at Harder Stadium would be tied for 13th in the country.
As a team, UC Santa Barbara totaled 17 shots on Wednesday night, their third-highest total of the season. It is also a number they have reached three times before this year, including in both of their two prior games.
Of the 47 all-time meetings between UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, Wednesday night was the 37th in which the sides were managed by Tim Vom Steeg and Dwayne Shaffer respectively. Vom Steeg has won 24 of those meetings.

FROM THE STUDENT-ATHLETES
Alexis Ledoux on his goal-scoring form: "It's not random," Ledoux said. "I've been working in training on those situations, I know that I was getting a lot of looks, and I think this is the difference between last year and this year, I'm converting now, I'm scoring goals. If they come in pairs when it's at Harder, let them come in pairs, I'm happy with that, but most importantly, it's a big win tonight for the boys. I always tell the boys, it doesn't matter if I score, what I really want is the team to do good and the team to win."

Filip Basili on the Gauchos' ability to create chances: "We kind of changed our tactics right before the game, and it honestly made it super easy for the midfield, for me, Mikkel and Henrique from the start. We just passed it out to the side and Davis didn't really have a great answer for that, so we could just feed the ball into our strikers. I don't take too much credit for that myself, it was a team effort."

UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara is on the road again on Saturday, as they will travel to face an in-form Sacramento State team in the state's capitol. Kickoff from Hornet Field is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)