For about 14 minutes on Saturday night, Westmont was beating the tenth-ranked team in NCAA Division I men’s soccer.
Michael Nonni and the UCSB Gauchos, however, finally began to convert their opportunities down the stretch and barraged the Warriors with three goals in the final 20 minutes to pull out a 3-1 win at Harder Stadium.
Nonni, a native of South Africa playing in his first game as a Gaucho, scored the first two goals within five minutes of each other.
“It’s awesome. The atmosphere here is electric here so it’s really fun to play,” he said. “I think some of the newer guys were maybe nervous out there. This was definitely the biggest crowd that I’ve played in front of, but we settled down and I think we dominated at the end.”
The crosstown exhibition drew a healthy crowd of 2,341 to the stadium, and Nonni is going to be playing in front of much bigger crowds than that once the Big West schedule rolls around.
WESTMONT MEN’S SOCCER TEAM PAGE
Westmont looked like a completely different team than it did just a few days ago, when the Warriors fell to SBCC 4-1 in a scrimmage at La Playa Staium. Despite being out-shot 21-7, they were gritty and didn’t seem intimidated by the atmosphere, which included heavy heckling from the Gaucho Locos fan section.
“What was going through my head (with the 1-0 lead) is what was going through my head the whole game, which was that it just felt good to be in the game,” said Westmont coach Dave Wolf. “We had given up so many early goals in this game over the last four or five years. I just felt really good at halftime that we had competed like we did.”
The stunner came in the 59th minute, when Daniel Guzman sent a ball into the middle and Ben Gordon put it away past UCSB goalie Sam Hayden to put the Warriors on top. Westmont has not beaten UCSB since 2000.
“It was a phenomenal rush. There’s no way to describe it. It was amazing to be up on a team like UCSB. We thought we had ’em,” said Gordon.
Gaucho senior David Walker blasted a close-range shot at Warriors goalie Matthew McNab in the 74th minute, and McNab did a nice job getting in front of it. Nonni, however, was right on top of the rebound and put it in for the equalizer. In the 79th, Danny Barerra sent in a cross from the left side and Nonni struck again, this time on a beautiful header.
Martin Hedevag ended the scoring in the 87th when he dribbled through the Warrior defense and put in a close-range shot into the upper right corner.
UCSB had nine shots to Westmont’s two in the first half, but the Gauchos either missed just wide or were stopped by McNab, who had five saves on the night. Ultimately, the Gauchos wore down the Warriors with their speed and pressure, which allowed for the late surge.
“This is the earliest we’ve ever had to scrimmage anybody, and it was hard because Westmont was very organized and disciplined,” said coach Tim Vom Steeg. “We missed some really good opportunities in the first half… To be honest, I’m pleased that we responded and that we turned it one and gave it the extra push to go and get goals.
“Part of our preseason talk here is that we need to be a second-half team… We’re very fast and very skillful, and we need the game to open up a little bit and get teams running.”
The regular season will be up and running when Cal State Bakersfield cmes to Harder Stadium a week from Tuesday. The Warriors, meanwhile, begin play in the Azusa Cougar Classic on Thursday.
how can we get more pictures from this game
i'll check back and see what we've got. the light was tricky. check back tomorrow. thanks! – blake
i'll check back and see what we've got. the light was tricky. check back tomorrow. thanks! – blake
i'll check back and see what we've got. the light was tricky. check back tomorrow. thanks! – blake