Westmont kept it tight in the first half, but a pair of second-half goals vaulted UC Santa Barbara to a 3-1 win over the Warriors in Thursday’s Community Shield exhibition match.
The matchup was Westmont’s second exhibition matchup of the season while the Gauchos now have two exhibitions and two official games under their belts.
“We achieved our three goals tonight,” UCSB head coach Paul Stumpf said to UCSB Athletics. “We wanted to improve upon our style of play and identity, we wanted to get significant experience for some of our new players and we wanted to win.”
The Warriors started fast and struck first with a goal in the fifth minute to stun their hosts, as Shayna Stock found Sierra Martin for the goal.
After the opening goal, UCSB buckled down on the defensive end and dominated control of the ball for the rest of the first half, out-shooting Westmont 14 to three.
One of those shots was a penalty kick by Lauren Helwig, who found the back of the net to knot things up at 1-1 in the 28th minute.
Despite plenty more opportunities for the Gauchos, the 1-1 tie held into the halftime locker room.
Coming out of the half, UCSB continued to keep the ball on their offensive side of the field, pressuring the Warriors’ defense. That pressure led to another Gaucho score in the 67th minute, this one coming from Manuri Alwis, who was assisted by Kyla Christofferson.
“When we are worried that we are going to lose the ball, we stay in a defensive shape, which isn’t good for keeping the ball,” said Westmont coach Jenny Jaggard. “Defensively, we need to learn not to foul when we have them contained.”
UCSB and Westmont got off the same amount of shots for the rest of the game, but Gaucho Leila Emmerson’s attempt in the 85th was a successful one, extending the lead to 3-1 before time ran out.
When the final whistle sounded, the Gauchos had out-shot the Warriors 22-6 and taken five corner kicks compared to Westmont’s zero. Warrior goalkeepers Ellie Ludwig and Maya Pablos combined for six saves throughout the match.
“I’ve been very pleased with the overall effort from the group since day one,” Stumpf said. “We’ve seen the effort in all four of our games thus far.”
Despite the loss, Jaggard found a number of positives.
“We have a lot of potential and I am excited about the depth,” expressed the coach. “We played everybody and everybody has something to offer that is exciting. I am looking forward to seeing how we piece it together after we have a full two weeks under our belt. We are just seven days into training.”
UCSB will travel to Fresno State to take on the Bulldogs on Thursday at 7 p.m. while Westmont has its final exhibition match on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Cal Lutheran at home.
