It was one of those electric Saturday nights that have been going on at UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium since Tim Vom Steeg took the reins of the Gaucho men’s soccer program 28 years ago.
The weather was pleasantly cool, the largest crowd in men’s college soccer this season poured into the stadium, the Gauchos celebrated the 20th anniversary of the NCAA College Cup National Championship and the night’s opponent was rival Cal Poly.
UCSB delivered a sterling performance in the Blue-Green Rivalry Game, scoring three first-half goals en route to 3-1 non-conference victory before 11,183.
“You put a bunch of people in the stands, you turn the lights on… and it’s Harder Stadium. And, you know, some of the magic just came back tonight,” said Vom Steeg, who has experienced many big nights at Harder in his career. “I thought the first half was obviously as good as you’re going to play in any game.”
The Gauchos got goals from Steinar Bjornsson, Zac Siebenlist and Kaden Standish inside 40 minutes, and all three were beautifully set up by Donovan Sessons, Jack Middleton and Bjornsson.
UCSB also got standout games from goalkeeper Owen Beninga and center back Calle Mollerberg, who made some clutch plays in front of the goal. Beninga finished with eight saves, including a sprawling stop with his leg in a one-on-one situation with the Gauchos leading 2-0 in the 28th minute.
“It was great to be able to have Calle back. A captain, he’s been out with his injury all season and he gave us what he could,” said Vom Steeg. “It was great to see Zac score against his hometown (team); it’s great he finally got a goal that he’s been going after, and he buried a great ball.
“Overall, it was a great performance, and I thought we did the right things at the right moments and, hopefully, this will propel us a little bit. That’s the big hope. We’ll take the momentum and head back out until it’s done, But for one night, obviously, we’ll enjoy everything that happened.”
The Gauchos (6-3-4 overall) needed a good performance and a result like this after winning just once in their last five outings. They were coming off a lackluster 0-0 draw in a Big West match at Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday.
They withstood Cal Poly’s early defensive pressure and scored on a counterattack in the 18th minute to set off a shower of tortillas from the stands — just like in the glory days.
On the first goal, defensive midfielder Jack Middleton passed up field to Sessoms, who took a big hit as he got off a perfect pass into the path of Bjornsson. The forward went one on one with Cal Poly goalkeeper Matthew Guerra and tucked his shot into the goal for a 1-0 advantage.
One minute later, Pac-12 Conference member Cal Poly had a good look at an equalizer as midfielder Quinn Mahoney got behind the defense. But Beninga came up big and made the save on Mahoney’s big blast.
The Gauchos made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute. Siebenlist won a battle for the ball in the midfield, passed to Bjornsson on the right, got off the ground and sprinted up the middle channel. Bjornsson saw his teammate, crossed the ball and Siebenlist finished.
“We’ve scored some really crazy, nice goals this year, but they’ve all been individualist — you know, some guy picks it up, runs by two people, shoots the ball and we win the game or we tie it,” said Vom Steeg. “What we’ve been working on is: ‘Can we play together? Can we do the dynamic run and then finish with the cross or finish with a nice pass?’ That was the most pleasing thing about tonight. We’ve been very electric up front, as you known, but it hasn’t necessarily led to goals because we get to the final phase and we’re missing the pass, we’re missing the finish. So it was great to see that.
“It was great to see that these guys got going a little bit. I thought it was a reflection of the way the whole team played. You have to understand, playing Cal Poly is the hardest team to play against, to build through, and we were committed to it tonight. And, as a result, we got some great goals.”
Siebenlist, a San Luis Obispo native, was thrilled to score against Cal Poly and pleased it came on a sequence of passes.
“I was on the end of that but I couldn’t have done it at all without Steinar giving that ball to me. So I’m very thankful that he got the ball there and I ended up on the end of it,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s a great feeling to scored against my hometown (college team). It’s been a long time coming, but, yeah, it’s all smiles after that.”
Beninga’s stellar play in goal continued to keep the Mustangs off the scoreboard. He saved a shot by Finn Linas at the near post in the 25th minute and made a spectacular, splits-like leg save on a one-on-one confrontation with Rylan Firouznam in the 28th.
“Owen, I thought, was great in goal tonight. He’s kind of an unsung hero because he came up with a couple of really big saves in key moments,” said Vom Steeg.
Middleton, who played a strong match at both ends of the field, fed Standish for a golazo and a 3-0 lead in the 31st minute. Middleton lifted a pass to a running Standish, who stunned Cal Poly and the big crowd by smashing a volley into the back of the net.
“What a finish,” said Middleton of Standish’s one-timer. “I have to give all the credit to Kaden on that one. I saw him make the run, put the ball in a decent spot and he did the rest. That was all Kaden.”
Cal Poly threatened in the 70th minute, but Calle Mollerberg blocked a shot by Firouznam at the goal-line and Beninga followed by stopping the rebound attempt from Charlie Hogan.
The Mustangs (4-4-5), who won the first meeting, 2-1, in San Luis Obispo last month, broke through in the 85th minute on a rebound by Devin Bening.
With several members of his national championship team on hand to watch the game, Vom Steeg was happy to see this year’s squad play well and win on a night that was reminiscent of other big nights at Harder Stadium.
“What’s great about tonight is you go home and you feel good,” he said. “The way we played tonight, there’s no reason why we can’t do it again, and I think that’s the lesson you want to pass along. Coming off of Wednesday, with everything that’s going on, to play like we did in the first half… If we put that on the field over an entire game, I genuinely believe we can beat anybody in the country. I believe it. Now we got to get it across to the players and come out and do that again.”
The Gauchos are back in action Wednesday at Gonzaga.
