“It was one of those nights where everything went south.”
UCSB men’s soccer coach Tim Vom Steeg couldn’t have explained Saturday night’s shocking 4-1 loss to UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament championship game any better.
The crowd of 3,815 at Harder Stadium saw the Gauchos make uncharacteristic mistakes in the back line, give up two goals in the first half to have their seven-match shutout streak snapped, and lose an assistant coach and two players to red cards in their second straight loss to the Anteaters in the tournament final.
As a result, UC Irvine (15-6-0) wins the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament while No. 4-ranked UCSB (15-4-2) waits to see if it receives one of the 27 at-large berths on Monday when the 48-team tournament field is announced.
“It’s been a great streak, a great season and great run,” Vom Steeg said. “We’re one of 48 teams in the mix and all great teams are measured by how they do in the NCAA playoffs.”
UCSB started off with little energy and the Anteaters feasted on that. They applied heavy pressure on defenders Martin Hedevag and Michael Boxall, forcing them to turn the ball over. That led to the two first-half goals.
One turnover led to a corner kick that resulted in the first goal in the 10th minute. Carlos Aguilar hit a line drive that was flicked at the near post by Kevin Santora to an unmarked Gray Bailey, who poked the ball past goalkeeper Sam Hayden at the far post.
“We’ve been very good about not making mistakes,” Vom Steeg said. “Even the first goal was a mistake because it’s something we talked about: picking up at the near post.”
The coach said it was Luis Silva’s responsibility to guard Santora at the near post, but Silva was playing sick and missed the assignment.
“He’s been great all year. Tonight he just wasn’t on that play. Anybody could have scored on that second ball.”
While the goal broke UCSB’s shutout streak, it was the second goal that broke the Gauchos’ back.
On a mix-up, Hedevag tried to play the ball back to Hayden, but the ball took a high bounce and Irvine’s Irving Garcia broke in, stole it and scored into an open net.
Vom Steeg said he couldn’t understand why his defense played the ball back to Hayden.
“For some reason, we decided to play through Sam for the first 15 minutes. I don’t know where that came from. It cost us the corner kick and it caused us the second goal.”
UC Irvine coach George Kuntz said it was his game plan to pressure the Gaucho defenders.
“We pressed,” he said. “The difference in the last two games we played them was we didn’t press. If you look at this game and Cal Poly (in the semifinals), we changed the way we pressed and obviously it worked for us.”
Irvine’s aggressive play led to 29 fouls being called on the Anteaters.
Vom Steeg said Irvine’s defensive strategy wasn’t unexpected and he figured his team would weather the pressure and get untracked.
The Gauchos started to show life in the 27th minute and almost tied the score. Silva made a spendid diagonal pass to a David Walker, who was breaking into the box on the right. Walker fired a low shot on goal but Irvine goalkeeper Andrew Fontein made the save.
Following the mess in the back that led to a 2-0 Irvine lead, UCSB’s troubles got worse as Peter McGlynn was given a red card for lashing out at referee Jesse Johnson. It was the second Gaucho ejection of the first half. Assistant coach Leo Chappel was tossed out 10 minutes earlier.
Down by two goals and shorthanded, UCSB would be hard-pressed to pull this game out.
But the Gauchos kept plugging away and almost cut the lead in half. But Danny Barrera’s shot from close ranged was blocked beautifully by Fontein.
“Their keeper made two big saves on those plays,” said Vom Steeg.
Kuntz said Fontein had been hurt most of the season and had just returned to the lineup in the semifinal game against Cal Poly. He made six saves.
“He’s a big-time tournament player,” the coach said. “Nothing fazes him. He’s a very strong person, mentally. He’s one of those guys who’s steady. He’s the kind of person who you need in goal. We knew he would be good in this environment.”
The Anteaters kept the pressure on the Gauchos in the second half and got a third goal on a penalty kick by Aguilar after Spencer Thompson was fouled in the box.
Thompson got rewarded for all his hard work up front when he spun around two defenders and scored in the 76th minute to make it 4-0.
The Gauchos avoided the shutout when Tim Pontius headed in a cross from Michael David in the 83rd minute.
UCSB then got hit with another red card as C.J. Cintas was sent off for rough play in the 86th minute.
That ended a forgettable night for UCSB, which now looks ahead to making its eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“The only game you should be on the field crying about is the one that’s your last game,” Vom Steeg said. “Now if we don’t get selected Monday, yeah, we should be upset. I’m very confident we’ll be playing next week.”
