A freshman and a junior nearly stole the show on UCSB’s Senior Night at Harder Stadium Saturday.
Forward Michael Nonni snapped an eight-game goal-less drought and goalkeeper Sam Hayden notched his record-tying 13th shutout of the season to lead the No. 2-ranked Gauchos to 2-0 victory over UC Davis in the Big West regular-season men’s soccer finale before 6,854.
It was the ninth shutout in conference play by the champion Gauchos, who finished at 8-1-1 (25 points) and 14-3-2 overall. They’ll open the Big West Tournament against fourth-place Cal State Northridge on Wednesday night at Harder Stadium. Northridge, which handed UCSB its only conference loss, beat UC Irvine 3-0 on the road Saturday.
Irvine finished third in the standings and will play at second-place Cal Poly in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The winners meet next Saturday at the site of the highest seeded team for the automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
UC Davis ended the year at 6-12-1, 3-7-0.
After having a goal nullified by a dubious offsides call and shooting a ball off the post in the first half, Nonni was finally rewarded for his hard work in the 65th minute. He converted a brilliant pass from senior David Walker. Walker, standing in the center circle, headed a through ball to Nonni, who broke away from the defense and beat 6-foot-6 UC Davis goalkeeper Matt Provencher one on one for the eventual game winner.
“We worked on that in training,” Nonni said. “(Walker’s) a great player, so I knew exactly what was going to happen. He flicked it through and the rest was history.”
It was Nonni’s first goal since the Indiana game on Oct. 2 and his sixth of the season. He had been hampered by a knee injury.
“It felt great,” the freshman said of finally scoring. “This was the first game after the last four or five where I felt healthy. I was out with knee injury and I haven’t been 100 percent since. I woke up this morning and said, ‘I feel good, so it’s going to be a good match.’ “
UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg was pleased to see Nonni play a key role in the win.
“He had a great work rate, great energy.” the coach said. “His knee is feeling better so he ran tonight. That’s his game and he hadn’t been able to run. He felt constricted. I thought it was nice to get him going.”
Walker made it a good night for the senior class by contributing to the second goal two minutes after assisting on Nonni’s. He took the ball to the left end line and fired it back toward the middle of the goal box, where it hit off UC Davis defender Ethan Shawlee and deflected into the net for an own goal.
“It completed a great night for him,” Vom Steeg said of Walker. “I thought he played great in the first half. He delivered some very good balls in the box. We just didn’t get through the box as well as we could.”
Walker had a great look at goal during the first half when Josue Madueno laid a ball back for him for a blast from 18 yards, But UC Davis defender Chris Beville backed up his goalkeeper and cleared the shot off the goal-line.
“Every single time we play Davis the games end up like this — we miss some early chances,” said Vom Steeg. “I told (the players) we just got to keep running and running and we’ll eventually wear this team down. I thought it would be a second-half game anyway.”
The Gauchos almost scored a third goal, but Luis Silva’s header clanked off the cross bar.
Hayden preserved the shutout by making five saves. One was an acrobatic stop on a shot by Paul Marcoux in the 35th minute.
“You need one save every game to get a shutout and Sam has given us that one save every game,” said Vom Steeg.
Hayden’s 13th shutout tied the school record set by Danny Kennedy during the 2004 season.
Hayden and the improved play of the team’s defense, led by Michael Boxall and Martin Hedevag, has been instrumental in the team’s success. The Gaucho defense is rated the fifth best in the country.
“It starts and ends with our goalkeeping and the emergence of Boxall as being good as advertised,” Vom Steeg pointed out. “He’s always been good, but now he’s playing mistake free and shutting people down. And Martin has been a good complement for him because Martin does a lot of talking. The two of them have been very good.”
He also noted the entire team’s commitment to defending.
“It’s been a collective effort,” Vom Steeg said. “It’s been our work rate starting with our forwards.”
The playoff opener against a senior-laden Northridge team will be a rubber match. The Gauchos lost 1-0 at Northridge but came back 10 days later to win the rematch 2-0 at home.
“You’re not going to want to miss it,” said Vom Steeg.
