It was evident in the first half Tuesday that Santa Barbara’s perfect record in boys soccer was in jeopardy.
Playing against an inspired Dos Pueblos squad, the Dons misfired on some excellent scoring chances and wound up being held to a 0-0 draw in a Channel League match at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
Santa Barbara's Alex Santana makes a pass before Dos Pueblos' Rodrigo Perez can make a play on the ball.
The result ended an 18-0-0 streak for Santa Barbara and left the top-ranked team in CIF Division 2 with a 1-0-1 record in league play.
Dos Pueblos, meanwhile, battled to its second straight tie in Channel League and is now 4-4-8 on the season.
This stalemate, however, was something special for the Chargers because it came against a crosstown rival, the No. 1 team in CIF, and was accomplished by everyone playing hard for the full 80 minutes. DP defended like crazy, got outstanding play from goalkeeper Eric Katz and gave the Dons a scare in the second half with some dangerous counterattacks.
“I was mostly proud of our guys’ sense of urgency, the sense of the moment,” DP coach Tovi Eliasen said. “We’ve always played them tough, so I was happy they had a good sense of the moment, that today is the day we need to have one of our better games to be successful. On a man to man, the guys really stepped up to keep that zero on the scoresheet.”
The Chargers got some breaks, too, as Santa Barbara missed on some great scoring chances in the first half. In the 25th minute, Katz came up with consecutive big plays after a long throw into the box. He stopped Justin Jimenez at the near post and scrambled to clear another dangerous ball in the six-yard box.
In the 34th minute, Santa Barbara’s Marcos Lopez perfectly timed his run into the box on a free kick by Jesse Gutierrez but his header sailed over the cross bar.
Then in the final seconds of the half, Edgar Ruiz beat Katz to a long ball into the box and fired a shot that deflected off a defender. The ball ended up at the feet of Fernando Alvarado, who was looking at an open net. His shot, however, trickled wide of the far post.
The Dons outshot DP 7-1 in the first 40 minutes.
“At the end of the day, we were kind of our own worst enemy,” Santa Barbara coach Todd Heil said. “We should have been up 2-0 at halftime. Unfortunately, today we were kind of in our own heads.”
Dos Pueblos continued to defend well in the second half and became a threat on offense with the fleet-footed Rodrigo Perez leading the counterattack.
“I thought in the second half we really took it to them,” Eliasen said. “They outplayed us for sure in the first half, but I liked the effort overall. We have a really good team and I don’t think our record necessarily shows how good our team is.”
Heil said his team lost its patience on offense in the second half.
“I think we got a little too excited in the second half and worried we might not score a goal. We started to force a lot in the second half,” he said.
Alvarado got a good look at the goal the 77th minute, but his blast from 20 yards slammed off the cross bar. One minute later, Christian Pardo set up Alvarado for a chance from close range, but DP’s Vicente Perez hustled back and blocked the shot.
“Unfortunately things didn’t go our way today, but maybe it serves as a wakeup call,” said Heil. “This is the first tine we’ve stepped off the field this season not winning. Hopefully, things like this turn around and have a positive outcome.”
Eliasen noted that the scrappy play of outside backs Kyle Schmechel and Casey Donahue typified his team’s effort.
“You could tell as they came off exhausted, it takes a full 80 minutes of hard work to keep a zero against these guys.
“Our guys were ready for it today,” he continued “I really liked their mentality. In warm-ups, you could see in guys’ eyes they were ready to play today. We’re happy to be that first team to put the one (blemish) next to the record for Santa Barbara.
