It was bounce-back night on Monday for the UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer team after getting thumped in last Friday’s season opener at Harder Stadium.
The Gauchos erupted for three unanswered goals to erase a 2-1 second-half deficit and defeated visiting Pacific, 4-2, on a warm evening.
The result erased the bad taste of a 4-0 loss against Oral Roberts.
Junior defender Kenny Villatoro, who scored the game winner in the 75th minute, said the team changed its approach going into Monday night’s game.
“Our guys after that 4-0 loss were devastated,” he said. “That’s not the way we want to play. But you got to take the positive out of the negative, and we talked as a group, coaches and everybody, and we had a change of mindset. We have to play harder, run, run for each other.”
Villatoro ran up the right side, took a pass from David Danquah and chipped the ball over a surprised Pacific goalkeeper Joshua Moya for a 3-2 lead in the 75th minute.
“I saw the 2 v 1 right there,” said Villatoro. “Dunquah got the ball and I told him, ‘Hold up, hold up’ for the overlap. He passed the ball and I hit it.”
It was Villatoro’s first college goal.
“We got good combination play at the very end there,” said UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg, who was back on the sideline after missing the opener because he was serving a suspension for a red card received in last season’s Big West Tournament final.
The Gauchos also got first-time major college goals from sophomore Eddie Villeda and JC transfer Haruki Utsumi.
Utsumi’s goal came on a set piece and tied the score at 2-2 in the 70th minute. He charged toward the 6-yard box as Lucas Gonzalez floated a free kick from 30 yards into the area. The ball eluded a defender and landed right in front of Utsumi for the putaway.
“The set piece really turned things on,” said Vom Steeg. “Haruki’s goal was big time and that kind of lifted us.”
The goal came eight minutes after Pacific’s Samuel Villalta ran on to a nice through ball from Samuel Saiz Herraiz and tucked a shot past a charging UCSB goalkeeper Leroy Zeller for a 2-1 lead.
“That’s a good team. They’re a big, physical group,” said Vom Steeg of the Tigers, who were coming off a 2-1 at UC San Diego.
Nemo Philipp set up an overlapping Villeda for UCSB’s first goal of the season in the first half. Philipp went one-on-one with a defender on the right side and fired the ball into the box. The ball deflected out to Villeda and he hit one-time shot into the near corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute.
Pacific equalized in the 52nd minute, capitalizing on a UCSB defensive miscue. The ball was lifted over the top to Derrick Roque on the left side and he beat two defenders on the dribble before shooting past Zeller.
The Tigers went up 2-1, but the Gauchos didn’t let down. They continued to push the ball and drew a foul to set up Gonzalez’ free kick that resulted in Utsumi’s tying goal.
Vom Steeg used nine substitutes in the game and said the rotation of fresh players wore down Pacific.
UCSB finished the scoring in the 77th minute on a Gonzalez penalty kick. The penalty was awarded after some nice combination play between Mikkel Goeling, Nicolas Hald Willumsen and Danquah.
Danquah received a pass from Willumsen in the box and was taken down on his run toward goal.
“It’s just looking up and finding each other, something that we really didn’t do against Oral Roberts,” said Villatoro of the combination play.
“This group can score four goals, it’s a good attacking group. We obviously got a good response after the other night,” said Vom Steeg.
The Gauchos (1-1) take their first road trip to Portland on Friday.