A converted penalty shot by Finn Ballard McBride in the 24th minute proved to be enough for the UCSB men’s soccer team to net a 1-0 victory Wednesday night against UC San Diego in a Big West opener at Harder Stadium.
Santa Barbara, the defending conference champion, improved to 6-2-2 overall while UC San Diego fell to 4-4-2 overall.
“We’re halfway through the season essentially, and it’s good to get a goal in the first game of conference and a win,” said Ballard McBride. “I think we struggled a little bit getting opportunites tonight, but I think moving forward, with a few small changes we can score more goals in future Big West games.”
Despite the victory, not much came easy for the Gauchos, especially on the offensive department.
A couple days prior to the contest, the team found out it would be without star scorer Salvador Aguilar for the rest of the season, after suffering a knee injury.
Aguilar led the team in scoring with five goals, most of which came on strong headers, where he would beat every defender to the ball and simply knock it in.
“Not having Chava tonight was a hit for us,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “We got to start to make adjustments and, in college soccer, we have one or two days of practice.
“So, we found out just a couple days ago we didn’t have him and that affects us, and we need somebody else to step up.”
Vom Steeg said forward Nemo Phillip played well, ripping three shots in the first half alone that were all good scoring opportunities for the Gauchos.
Phillip finished with a team-high four shots, two of which forced saves from the Tritons goalkeeper.
Other injuries the team is currently dealing with include Johannes Vedin and Jared Vom Steeg, a defender and a midfielder, respectively.
“Fortunately for us, we have a surplus of attacking players. But losing Jared hurts and so does losing Johannes because now, instead of being able to push Lucas (Gonzalez) further up the field, I have to keep him in the midfield a little bit more,” Vom Steeg said.
“But attacking is not the issue. The issue is we never threatened behind, we never made runs, things that Chava does. It’s not like I don’t have other forwards that can do that, it’s not anything complicated. Chava just naturally does it. Now it’s just a new combination and we have players who could do that but didn’t tonight and we have to work on that.”
The only goal of Wednesday’s contest came in the 24th minute, when a pass from Gonzalez found Phillip in the box.
An aggressive UCSD defender, trying to clamp down on any shot attempt, came down to hard, pushing Phillip down and prompting the referee to call a penalty.
Finn Ballard McBride’s PK is Game Winner for UCSB https://t.co/2LAZps82co via @YouTube
— NoozhawkSports (@NoozhawkSports) September 29, 2022
Ballard McBride took the ensuing spot kick. He hesitated slightly on his approach before taking his shot to the left post and beating Tritons’ goalkeeper Dominic Peters, who got a glove on it.
Ballard McBride said that sometimes players are taught to simply pick a side they want to shoot and let it rip.
But, after studying some of the best penalty shooters in the world, many of them actually hesitate ever so slightly before taking the shot, to see if the keeper opens and picks a side first so they can catch them off guard.
For Ballard McBride, it was his fourth of the season, good for second on the team and tied for second in the conference. He is now 2-for-2 on penalties in his career.
“Chava was obviously a big loss. He’s got a lot of important goals this season for us late in games, especially whenever I just dropped in. He just had to jump over everyone, it’s hard to stop,” Ballard McBride said.
“But we’re going to find other ways to score and hopefully me and other guys can step up a bit more and take that load of what Chava would have been scoring.”
Gauchos’ keeper Leroy Zeller played an outstanding match as well, earning his second clean sheet of the season.
All three of his saves came within a seven-minute span in the second half, as UC San Diego picked up the pace in an attempt to net an equalizer.
The most dangerous shot came in the 72nd minute, when a UC San Diego forward received a deep pass and got behind the UCSB back line. Nick Corrito, the Tritons forward, fired a shot on goal but Zeller stuck his left foot out to bat it away before corralling it.
UCSB’s next match will be against CSUN at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Harder Stadium.