NORTHRIDGE — UCSB suffered a black eye on Sunday.
On a day when the Gauchos struggled offensively and goalkeeper Sam Hayden got clocked above the right eye in a collision, Cal State Northridge scored off a corner kick in the 78th minute and upset the No. 3-ranked team in the country 1-0 in a Big West match at the Matador Soccer Stadium.
Robert Pate and Cameron Sims put their heads together and combined for the winning goal. Sims headed Rene Anguiano’s corner kick across to Pate, who headed the ball past Hayden inside the near post. Hayden had come back into the game 12 minutes earlier, replacing Trond Helge Takset who filled in nicely for Hayden after he went to the sidelines with a swollen eye.
The goal ended a UCSB-record shutout streak of 542 minutes, 10 seconds and a five-game winning streak.
It was huge victory for Northridge (2-2), which moved into a three-way tie with UC Irvine and UC Davis for fourth place in the Big West with six points. The Gauchos and Cal Poly (both 4-1-0) are tied for the top spot with 12 points.
“It was a much more important game for us to get three points than Santa Barbara getting three points,” Northridge coach Terry Davila said. The Matadors (7-5-1) came into the match on a three-game losing streak, and they’d lost two in row to the Gauchos at home.
“It wasn’t so much about the rivalry,” Davila said, “it was about us getting three points today and we did, and it happened to be against Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a quality team and we’re the opponent and I’m glad we got the win.”
There were few quality scoring chances in the match as both teams slugged it out in the midfield. The Matadors stymied UCSB’s potent attack with a swarming defense.
“We just were not very sharp in passing the ball,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “I don’t think we passed the ball to our forwards six times. It starts and ends with that. We might as well taken our forwards off the field. I have to look at the tape and try to figure out why we couldn’t get the ball to our forwards. We had no presence up front.”
The Gauchos (10-3-1) were held to nine shots while Northridge got off 18, the most allowed by UCSB in a game this year.
“It’s the same conversation: ‘Guess what, we got their best game,’ ” said Vom Steeg of Northridge’s performance.
With Matadors flying all over the field, the Gauchos had trouble getting into an offensive flow on the tight field.
The always dangerous Michael Tetteh couldn’t get down the line, where he usually sets up scoring opportunities with his crossing passes into the box. The aggressive play of midfielders Rafael Garcia, Luis Gil, Rene Anguiano and defenders Joe Franco and Dylan Riley gave the Gaucho fits.
Northridge, meanwhile, didn’t generate much, either. Michael Boxall and Martin Hedevag were solid in the back, and Tim Pontius came off the bench to give UCSB quality minutes at the defensive end.
One of the few times Northridge got the ball through the Gaucho defense resulted in a big blow for UCSB. In the 26th minute, Hayden raced nearly 20 yards off this line and collided with teammate Nic Ryan who was chasing the ball with Matador forward Sunghyun Kim. The three players went to the ground and when Hayden was helped up he was sporting a huge welt above his right eye.
Takset entered the game and was immediately tested by the Matadors. He reached high to tap away a shot by Dylan Riley and made a foot save on Matthew Chavez’s point-blank shot.
Takset started the second half and made two more saves before Vom Steeg put Hayden back into the game at the 62nd minute.
The coach said he consulted with the trainer and Hayden, making sure the goalkeeper could see before deciding to put him back in the game.
“When we iced it and it calmed down a little bit, he could see,” Vom Steeg said. “Obviously, he’s on a streak, he’s playing well. I thought Trond did fine but the bottom line is Sam has been on fire. At that point, we felt we had to go with him.”
Hayden didn’t disappoint. He went after two balls in a crowd and came up with them cleanly and also punched out free kick driven into the box.
But he couldn’t stop the header from Pate for the game-winning goal.
“We were dangerous on all our set pieces and we happened to put that one in,” said Davila.
Said Vom Steeg: “It comes down to a set piece, which is very, very unfortunate because we’ve been playing good defense and today was no exception. Of all the Northridge games, we gave them the least amount of looks today.”
The Gauchos started to show more life on offense after the goal, but Northridge goalkeeper Michael Abalos and the defense in front of him stayed strong and preserved the must-win for the Matadors.
“We certainly did not do enough for 70 minutes of the game to give ourselves a chance to bury something,” said Vom Steeg.
The Gauchos return home on Saturday against Cal State Fullerton and get a rematch with Northridge on Wednesday, Oct 28 at Harder Stadium.
