This UCSB soccer team thrives in prime time.
Making their second national television appearance this season, the 11th-ranked Gauchos were at their best. They attacked with a vengeance and wore down No. 9 Indiana 3-0 before a record crowd of 10,214 at Harder Stadium.
The turnout was a school record for a regular-season match, passing the previous high of 9,749 set last year against Cal Poly. Overall, it was second largest crowd in school history, ranking behind the 11,214 in attendance for the NCAA quarterfinal against Virginia Commonwealth in 2004.
Ironically, the 2004 team that lost to Indiana in the NCAA College Cup final in a penalty-kick shootout, was honored Friday at halftime.
Some members of that team said afterwards that they were impressed with the play of the current Gauchos.
How could they not be.
The Gauchos ran all over the Hoosiers just as they did against Rutgers in a 4-0 win in their previous TV appearance on the Fox Soccer Channel.
UCSB's Jonathan Zerah
“We call it Friday night lights, I guess,” said UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg with a laugh.
Danny Barrera and Michael Nonni both scored goals and had assists Friday, and Machael David tallied the first goal of his collegiate career in spectacular fashion as UCSB improved to 7-2-1. Indiana fell to 6-3-1.
“That’s what our team is really about,” Barrera said about the impressive performance in front of a big crowd. “We like the atmosphere, and once it comes down to a big-time game our team steps up. I’m proud of everyone.”
“These fans are amazing. It’s the greatest crowd in college soccer,” said Nonni.
After being dominated by the Hoosiers in the first 10 minutes, the Gauchos loosened up and took control of the game. They broke through in the 39th minute on a beautifully orchestrated play started by Barrera and Luis Silva in the midfield. Silva passed the ball down the left sideline, where Michael Tetteh ran on to it and dribbled toward the end line.
Tetteh juked Indiana defender Ofori Sarkodie and crossed the ball to Barrera, who was wide open at the far post. Barrera hammered the ball past a defenseless Indiana goalkeeper Luis Soffner for a 1-0 lead.
“I knew Tetteh was going to get the cross off, I just knew it because he always does,” Barrera said of the goal-scoring play. “I positioned myself at the back post and Tetteh did the guy up and left him on the ground. Tetteh hits a great cross, the (defender in front of the goal) whiffs on it a little bit off his shin and the goalie is in no-man’s land at near post and it was pretty easy.”
Vom Steeg said it was imperative his speedy midfielders got involved in this game.
“We will find our midfielders. I had to get on my backline a little bit and then they settled in, and once we settled in that was rest of the night. We found guys all over the field.”
On the second goal, Nonni caught the Hoosiers with only two defenders back and hit a short cross to David, who was sprinting up the middle of the field. David got behind the defenders, froze Soffner with a great move, dribbled around the Indiana goalkeeper and shot into the open net for a 2-0 lead at the 51st minute.
The speed of David, Tetteh and Waid Ibrahim was too much for Indiana to handle.
“They got some explosive players up top and they got some pace,” Indiana coach Mike Freitag said of the Gauchos. “We gave them too much time to receive and turn, and once they start running at you it gives you trouble.”
Vom Steeg said David played his best match of the season.
“Machael David personified the whole group; he was all over the field tonight,” the coach said. “His energy and work rate got us going, especially in the midfield. It was a breakout game for him.
“I thought Silva and Danny in the midfield were very, very good, too.”
A great hustle play by David Walker almost resulted in a third goal. Walker charged after a ball that Hoosiers failed to clear, took it to the end line and crossed it to the near post, where Nonni was crashing. Nonni got his foot on the ball but hit it over the cross bar in the 58th minute.
Nonni would not be denied the next time he got into a scoring position. Barrera received the ball on left side and crossed it into the middle of the penalty area, where Nonni snuck behind two defenders. He jumped and flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot past a surprised Soffner for a commanding 3-0 lead in the 60th minute.
“That was a great run,” said Barrera. “Every time I see a run going I’m going to hit it.”
The Gauchos continued to pressure the Indiana defense, and that took the Hoosiers’ big forward Will Bruin out of the game.
“We’re going to attack, attack and attack. We were looking to knock on the door the whole game,” said Barrera of the game plan.
“Bottom line I thought we just wore them down,” Vom Steeg said. “As the game went on they couldn’t stay at that energy level. As that happened, we kind of took over.”
Freitag didn’t offer any excuses for the loss and said all the credit goes to the Gauchos
“They were the better team tonight. They took their chances and did well with them,” he said.
Vom Steeg said his team has come around and it now feels comfortable playing in front of big crowds and on television.
“This group has settled in to playing in front of people and doing their thing,” he said. “You can’t script it any better in terms of our performance tonight. When we play like that we’re very, very hard to beat.”
