LA JOLLA — UC Santa Barbara split its two games at the Triton Invitational on Saturday, routing LaVerne, 23-7, and falling to second-ranked USC, 16-10.
Danilo Dragovic led the scoring party against La Verne, tallying four goals in a game where every Gaucho outfield player who got in the pool got on the scoresheet.
The Gauchos hung close with last year’s national runners-up in the afternoon action, trailing by just one goal right before halftime and again bringing the margin to one with a few minutes left in the third quarter.
The deficit was 6-1 less than a minute into the second quarter, but Santa Barbara rallied, with a pair of goals from Brock Zamanian, another from Sam McKenzie and a tally from Billy Rankin making the score 6-5 with a minute until the break. The Trojans scored twice in the final minute of the half, but Johnson scored the first goal after halftime to get one back for the Gauchos.
McKenzie and Zamanian both finished hat-tricks in the third quarter, getting back to within one (9-8) with 2:37 left in the quarter. That would be as close as Santa Barbara got though, with USC scoring seven to just two from the Gauchos over the remainder of the game.
Santa Barbara will look to keep up their momentum and finish the weekend strong on Sunday, taking on No. 20 Navy at 8 a.m. and Pomona-Pitzer at 1:20 p.m. at the Canyonview Aquatic Center in La Jolla.
