UCSB Men’s Soccer Holds on for 2-1 Road Victory Over Gonzaga

SPOKANE, Wash. — The UC Santa Barbara Men’s Soccer team used another excellent first-half performance to overcome an early penalty goal for Wednesday night’s hosts and build a 2-1 lead over Gonzaga by halftime.

The Gauchos made that lead stick throughout the second 45 minutes to pick up their third win in as many visits to Luger Field.

Walk-on midfielder Jack Middleton put home his first career goal to get Santa Barbara back on level terms before Kaden Standish gave the Blue and Gold their one and only lead with his fourth goal of the season. Three of his four strikes this year have been the one to decide the game.

“It’s always a challenge to play the next game after a home Cal Poly game, especially when it’s on the road,” UCSB head coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “We could have made it an easier night if we had not fallen behind and finished more of our chances, but in the end we did enough to win the game, so credit to the players for getting the result.”

The Gauchos kept their hosts contained for much of the first half, with the Bulldogs managing just three shots in the opening 45, with most of their attacking opportunities coming from set pieces.

A foul on the edge of the penalty area was only turned into a penalty kick after the home team challenged the spot of the foul, and despite Santa Barbara goalkeeper Owen Beninga diving the right direction, Gonzaga put home the penalty to take the lead.
 
Granted, the Gauchos always looked like erasing their deficit, as they had it pretty much all their own way in the first half, firing off 11 shots. One of those was a signature long-range effort from Steinar Bjornsson, which almost dipped under the crossbar in the 11^th minute.

With enough time to be patient and weave together sequences of passes, Santa Barbara’s shots were less of a barrage and more sustained pressure. Standish registered his team’s first attempt on target in the 19^th minute, skimming a shot through a defender’s legs but seeing it saved. Martin Odegaard Oesthagen saw an attempt saved in the 23^rd minute, then his fellow diminutive midfielder provided the breakthrough two minutes later.
 
Despite being shorter than everyone on the field not named Odegaard, Middleton got his head on Standish’s free kick — a beautiful, high, curled delivery that landed exactly on Middleton’s hairline as the five-foot-nine sophomore arrived at the back post — and nodded the ball back across goal. A Gonzaga defender tried to clear the shot off the line but it was too late and only added an exclamation to Middleton’s first career score.
 
The aforementioned only man shorter than Middleton, Odegaard, nearly got in on the scoring four minutes later as Zac Siebenlist’s pass set the Norwegian through on goal, but a brilliant kick save at full stretch from Gonzaga keeper Chema Preciado kept Odegaard out.

In the 34^th minute, Standish nearly had the Gauchos’ second goal as he beat a defender one-on-one to earn a sliver of space in the penalty area on the right flank but blazed his shot high. Thanks to his co-captain, Standish redeemed himself five minutes later.
 
After a long pass left him facing three Bulldog defenders some 25 yards from goal, Standish flicked a pass into space on his right, where Kalle Rahbek was arriving. The Dane had enough time to take a touch to set himself, then fizz a pass back towards the penalty spot, where Standish had run. All the senior from Danville had left to do was pass the ball into the back of the net, and it was 2-1 Gauchos.
 
The Bulldogs came out of halftime with more initiative in trying to take a result off of Santa Barbara, while the Gauchos were also more content to play in a way that would eliminate any mistakes that would give Gonzaga a free hit.

Still, Santa Barbara did have chances to extend its lead. A deflected cross fell at Bjornsson’s feet in the 49^th minute only for the Icelander’s shot to rattle the crossbar. Odegaard tried a bicycle kick in the 66^th, but the less said about that attempt the better.

Rahbek took a drive from distance two minutes later that forced Preciado to go full stretch to save it, but the Gauchos’ best chance came in the 71^st minute when a well-worked free kick routine saw Brown find Simone Ferrieri wide open at the far post and the Italian wisely head the ball back across the face of goal for Siebenlist.

While the Gaucho forward did have to somewhat flick his foot at the ball rather than whacking it, it was still stunning to watch Preciado scramble back across his 24-foot-wide goalmouth and claw the ball off the line.
 
Thankfully for — or really thanks to the efforts of the Santa Barbara defense, Beninga did not need to produce any heroics in the Gaucho goal to preserve the result. The last shot on target that the Bulldogs managed was in the 61^st minute; they did create a couple chances for their star striker, but both times his shot was comfortably off target.
 
The evening was soured when Donovan Sessoms was sent off for language in an 86^th-minute incident that stunned the Gauchos and the game’s broadcast commentators alike. Santa Barbara did hold on despite the numerical disadvantage through the final four minutes, with a crucial intervention from Brown the final action.

A last-minute cross somehow snuck through a gaggle of players at the front post of Santa Barbara’s goal, then danced along the goal line without crossing it. Brown was in the right place at the right time to sweep it away from danger before the Bulldog closing down on him could tap the ball over the line.

Sessoms’ sending off does mean that he will miss Saturday’s match at Cal State Fullerton, which is the next action on Santa Barbara’s schedule. Kickoff from Titan Stadium is set for 7 p.m. and the match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.