With the kind of year he’s had as a defender, scoring a game-winning goal would be a most-deserving reward for Michael Boxall.
The UCSB junior defender did just that Wednesday night. He headed in a rebound in the 72nd minute to give the No. 4-ranked Gauchos a 1-0 men’s soccer victory over Cal State Northridge in a semifinal game of the Big West Tournament before 2,807 at Harder Stadium.
The top-seeded Gauchos (15-3-2) will now play host to UC Irvine for the championship and the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth on Saturday night. UC Irvine, the No. 3 seed, beat second-seeded Cal Poly 2-1 on a penalty kick by Carlos Aguilar after Spencer Thompson was fouled in the box in the second overtime in the other semifinal game.
Boxall’s goal was the first of his college career. It came after Peter McGlynn won a ball from Northridge defender Matthew Chavez and then kicked it off him to force a corner kick. Danny Barrera drove his corner kick into the penalty area and it was headed out to Luis Silva who was 22 yards out near the top right corner of the box.
Silva chest trapped the ball to his feet and then ripped a right-footed bomb toward the upper left corner of the goal. Northridge goalkeeper Michael Abalos did a nice job to block the shot, but Boxall came flying in and put the ball into the back of the net with a diving header.
“It was my first goal and hopefully it won’t be my last,” said Boxall, who has played brilliantly all season on the back line and has been instrumental in the Gauchos posting a school-record 14 shutouts this season.
“I was happy for Boxall to get the goal,” said senior forward David Walker “It’s fitting. You work so hard in the back and you go up front and get the goal. It’s incredible.”
Said Silva: “It doesn’t really matter who scores at that moment. We just wanted to get one in, but It was great he was there. He hasn’t scored the whole year.”
Boxall said once he saw the ball there was no doubt he would win it.
“With all fifty-fifties, I go in with the attitude that I’m going to win them and put them away,” he said.
Boxall made it a point to be a better player his year. Last season he was part of a Gaucho defense that allowed 39 goals.
“I took it personally and I know a couple of other guys did, too.,” he said.
With Boxall and Martin Hedevag dominating in the backline, Sam Hayden playing brilliantly in goal and the other Gauchos hustling all over the field, the defense has given up just 12 goals in 20 matches.
“We’re hard pressed to give anything up,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “Tonight it was little less Sam and a lot more of our defense, I thought Martin and Boxall were very, very good tonight.”
Vom Steeg noted that of the three games they played this season against Northridge (10-8-2), Wednesday “was our most dominate performance.”
The Matadors’ best chances came on a couple of free kicks taken by Rafael Garcia, but Hayden was in the right position to make the saves.
“This was the hardest game, I feel, because this team had 10 seniors and came out and played extremely well,” Hayden said. “We dealt with them and played our game.”
The game-winning goal came after Michael Nonni had two goals nullified earlier in the second half. The first one was called off by a questionable offsides call and the other was taken away when the linesman ruled Nonni dribbled the ball over the end line before firing in a great shot from an extreme angle.
“You could just feel it was coming,” Vom Steeg said of the goal. “It has been the story of our season. We’ve been good going forward and on the flip side we’ve been very good in the back.”
The game was a physical one with 45 fouls called between the two teams (UCSB 23, Northridge 22) and a total of eight yellow cards handed out, five against the Gauchos.
Saturday’s game will be rematch of last year’s final, won by UC Irvine.
Photos by Jesse Wells
