Junior Milos Golic surpassed 200 career goals on Saturday afternoon as he posted a team-leading four goals for No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (12-14, 1-7) as it was narrowly edged, 9-8, by No. 5 Pepperdine (12-10, 4-4) at The Raleigh-Runnels Memorial Pool during both team’s regular season finale.
Senior Joe Wood recorded the first goal of the game less than 30 seconds in on a Gaucho power play. Pepperdine drew a five-meter penalty during the next possession and it was converted by JP MacDonell, tying the game at one-all. UCSB’s Joe Plume answered back with a goal exactly a minute later to give the Gauchos a 2-1 lead.
The game with tied again when Pepperdine’s Brett Auer tallied a six-on-five goal with 4:29 on the clock, but Noah Smith fired back during the Gauchos’ following possession to once again put UCSB ahead. It was the last UCSB goal of the period though, and Pepperdine collected two more to hold a slight 4-3 advantage heading into the quarter break.
The second quarter saw strong defensive efforts on both ends of the pool as each team recorded just one goal during the eight minute period.
Pepperdine broke through the Gaucho defense early in the second half with MacDonell stretching the Waves’ lead to 6-4 within the first 30 seconds of the period. Pepperdine added two more goals before Golic stopped the bleeding with the final goal of the quarter. The Gauchos trailed, 8-5 heading into the final period.
The fourth period saw a strong offensive surge by the Gauchos as they outscored the Waves, 3-1. Golic scored on a six-on-five with five minutes to go and then found the back of the cage again with 2:43 to go. Golic tallied the final goal of the game with 52 seconds left on the clock, but the rally fell short and Pepperdine was able to close out the 9-8 win.
Golic’s four goals helped him become just the fourth UCSB player to ever surpass 200 career goals. He has tallied 201 during his three seasons in the blue and gold.
In goal, Fraser Bunn posted eight saves.
UCSB will return to action next weekend when it heads to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, being hosted by USC. The tournament will run Friday through Sunday and the winner will receive the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Pepperdine 9, UCSB 8
| #9 UCSB | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | — | 8 | |||||||||
| #5 Pepperdine | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | — | 9 |
UCSB Goals: Milos Golic 4, Noah Smith 2, Joe Wood, Joe Plume
UCSB Saves: Fraser Bunn 8
Pepperdine Goals: JP MacDonell 3, Brett Auer 3, White 2, Milcovich 1
Pepperdine Saves: Tommy O’Connell 7
