Gauchos advance to Big West Championship title game in men’s soccer
UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team handed a familiar opponent a familiar result on Saturday night, handing UC Irvine a 2-1 defeat in the Big West Semifinal for the second time in three years. Andrew Kamienski scored his first career goal, then Isaiah Barber tapped home the game-winning goal with just under 10 minutes left to play.
FROM HEAD COACH TIM VOM STEEG
"The goal notwithstanding, because that kind of came out of nothing, I thought we dominated the second half," Vom Steeg said. "I thought (David) Mitzner did a good job making a couple of big saves in the first half, which allowed us to go into halftime 0-0, gave us a chance to make the adjustments. I've always thought when the other team owns the first half, you have the advantage because why would they change anything? We were able to make our adjustments and Isaiah came in and did a really good job because he did a specific role of taking away their left back who was kind of killing us. We went back to hard work up front and in the end, we had been asking our players can we get a set piece? We hadn't scored a set-piece goal in like 10 games. So, we got the set-piece goal which is what you need in these games, and then I thought the whole second half was us trying to find the game-winner."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half was goal-less but far from boring, with the teams combining for 13 shots in the opening 45 minutes. The majority of those belonged to UC Irvine, with Gaucho goalkeeper David Mitnzer making four of his five saves in the first half. His finest work came just six minutes into the match, when the Anteaters' top scorer got through the Santa Barbara backline, just to be denied one-on-one by Mitzner. The rebound stayed with Irvine, and Santa Barbara's goalkeeper made a sprawling stop seconds later to push the follow-up shot over the crossbar.
At the other end, Nicolas Willumsen was lively in the Gaucho attack, bullying Anteater defenders with his imposing 6-foot-2 frame and pressing Irvine's goaltender if he ever kept the ball at his feet for too long. Santa Barbara's great Dane had his team's first shot of the night, but put it over the crossbar in the ninth minute. Eddie Villeda took the Gauchos' most dangerous attempt of the first half a few minutes later, but his scalded shot from the top of the penalty area went wide.
After being out-shot 11-2 in the first half, the Gauchos turned the tables completely in the second half, firing off two shots within the first two minutes of the second period. When Kaden Standish forced the first save of the night from Anteater goalie Luke Pruter in the 52nd minute, it was already Santa Barbara's third shot of the half, and they would take three more before Irvine took their first.
However, the visitors did turn their first shot of the half into a goal. A poorly cleared cross fell right to an Anteater, who volleyed the ball past Mitzner to open the scoring in the 58th minute. Irvine's lead lasted all of two minutes. Right before the hour mark, Standish whipped in a low cross from a corner kick, and Haruki Utsumi made a sensational back-heeled flick in the middle of a crowded penalty area to find Kamienski, who fired home the equalizer.
From that point on, the Gauchos had their tails up, hunting a game-winning score. Kamienski, clearly feeling himself, even launched a 35-yard attempt that did force the Anteater keeper into action, and Santa Barbara found their breakthrough in the 82nd minute. Standish set it up again, starting by creating space to play in a cross from the right wing. His attempt was blocked but came right back to his feet, and he dribbled into the penalty area before firing a shot toward the back post. That shot turned into the game-winning assist as it basically just bounced off of Barber's foot and into the near corner.
The Gaucho defense then closed up shop, holding UC Irvine to just two shots in the final 10 minutes, one of which Santa Barbara blocked and the other of which was a tame header which Mitzner caught with ease as the Gauchos booked their ticket to a ninth Big West Championship Match.
FROM THE STUDENT ATHLETES
Andrew Kamienski on his goal: "It was big time. It was a big goal, we needed it after going down 1-0, show heart and passion from all the boys. We were pushing for it, and it was a big second half for everybody."
Isaiah Barber on his goal: "It felt great. The ball, I didn't really know that it was coming, to be honest. All of the sudden, I looked down and the ball was at my feet. I did my best to keep it on target, it ended up going in and it was just great to go up 2-1 and finish the game out."
BY THE NUMBERS
Saturday was the third Big West Semifinal in a row between UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. All three have featured the two teams as the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, and all three have ended with in a 2-1 victory for the No. 2 seed and home team.
Saturday's game was a statistical tale of two halves, with UC Santa Barbara being out-shot, 11-2, in the first half only to out-shoot UC Irvine, 13-5, in the second. After winning just one corner kick in the first half to UC Irvine's four, the Gauchos won seven corners in the second half to the Anteaters' three.
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will play for The Big West Championship on Friday, Nov. 15, against the winner of Sunday's second semifinal between No. 1 seed Cal Poly and No. 4 seed UC Davis. If UC Davis were to win, Santa Barbara would host the championship match at Harder Stadium. Check ucsbgauchos.com for the most up-to-date schedule information.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics).
