After his team outworked UCSB during a scoreless first half, Wofford College coach Ralph Polson knew the Gauchos would attack his Terriers like crazy in the second 45 minutes, especially after hearing portions of Tim Vom Steeg’s halftime tirade through the walls in the locker room.
“The locker rooms being as close as they were, I knew Tim wasn’t happy, and understandably,” Polson said. “You could see the frustration on their players and the confidence we had. We talked about how they were going to come out with a vengeance. You could hear it.”
The Gauchos responded to Vom Steeg’s message, finding their offensive rhythm and scoring on David Walker’s goal in the 84th minute for a 1-0 victory in a first-round NCAA men’s soccer playoff game before 2,211 at Harder Stadium.
UCSB's Michael Boxall and David Walker, the game-winning goal combination, embrace in front of a packed student section at UCSB's Harder Stadium on Thursday night.
With its ninth NCAA win at home, UCSB (16-4-2) moves on to a second-round matchup at the University of San Diego on Sunday. Wofford (12-3-3) ends its best season at the Division 1 level.
Vom Steeg was livid at his team’s subpar play in the first 45 minutes. The Gauchos had only one shot as the midfield struggled to connect passes because of the constant pressure applied by the scrappy Terriers, who were making their first NCAA appearance.
“I always said we need to have enough props (in the locker room) because it gives me enough things go kick … cones are good, ” Vom Steeg said about his frustration with his team at halftime. “I don’t scream and yell. Leo (Chappel, the assistant coach) wasn’t with us tonight (he’s serving a one-game suspension for a red card). He’s got a better use of the vocabulary than I do.
“I was massively disappointed in our energy, work rate and commitment. We played the first half like we didn’t care. That’s one thing that’s not going to happen as long as I’m coaching. We will care.
“I like the group, I like our guys. It’s a matter when you just got to fight through it sometimes. Sometimes you got to get pushed and yelled at … Cones are good, water bottles are good.”
The Gauchos turned up the heat immediately after halftime and had Wofford on its heels.
“It’s tough when you have to defend four corner kicks in the first 2 1/2 minutes,” Polson said. “They are a very dynamic team. They have some outstanding players. Even as the game went along we were holding our own in the game.”
That was frustrating for the Gauchos. As hard as they pressured, they couldn’t come up with a scoring touch, and that kept the Terriers in the game and hopeful for an upset.
Wofford almost scored in the 32nd minute. Forward Wilson Hood drove a ball that skipped off the head of UCSB defender Tim Pontius and clanked off the cross bar.
“The keeper was completely off his line and it just nicked off the cross bar,” Hood said. “I thought it was in for sure. I was already celebrating. We just didn’t catch that break today.”
Polson said a goal would have made things really interesting.
“That could have been the difference right there,” he said. “Instead we made a mistake. The ball is crossed in, the player’s open and he finished a great opportunity and that’s the difference.”
The play that led to the winning goal started with a long ball from Michael Tetteh to Michael Boxall, who came up from his center back position. Boxall smartly headed the ball across the goalmouth and Walker ran up and buried the shot.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything else,” said Walker. “It was a sitter. If I would’ve missed that, it would’ve been a rough night for me.”
Boxall noted that Walker was talking to him during the whole play.
“He said just put it there,” Boxall said. “You learn in those situations as a player in football anywhere around the world, you just put it across the goal and give anybody in the box a chance to put in the net. That’s what I did.”
Wofford goalkeeper Thomas Hunter said he barely saw the ball on the play because of the new pair of goggles he was wearing.
“He had to wear the goggles because he was suffering from an eye infection and he couldn’t wear his contact lenses,” Polson noted.
“These goggles gave me trouble today. I’ve never worn them before so it was kind of interesting in warmups,” Hunter said.
Polson said the prescription for the goggles was handled in Santa Barbara.
“They made a pair in Charlotte, but he couldn’t see out of those. They called in a prescription here and those were made in Santa Barbara. He picked them up before we played.”
Wofford didn’t have to rely much on Hunter in the first half as it kept the Gauchos in check by winning almost everything in the midfield. Armin Kinigadner and Yakov Rubinchik were running down almost every ball and not allowing UCSB to mount a serious attack.
“I felt like the first half we had the better of the play,” Polson said. “We hadn’t played against a 3-5-2 all season and that caused us a little bit of problems.But through the run of play, I thought we were frustrating UC Santa Barbara.”
Walker said he wasn’t surprised at how tough Wofford played against them.
“There are not going to be any bad teams in this because you got too much to fight for,” he said. “In ’06 we were unranked and we took out some of the best teams in the nation. It really doesn’t matter. On any given day, any team could beat another in college soccer. They had 10-12 seniors so you know they’re going to come out and play.
“We were by far the more talented team and more tactical team,” he added. “They had more heart in this game. That was hard for me as a senior to see. At the same time, we pulled through. We learned a lot from this game. We learned no game in the playoffs is going to be a cake walk.”
