ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — UCSB made some lineup adjustments, found its rhythm in the second half, got a goal from Sam Garza and recovered from an early deficit to come away with a 1-1 tie at New Mexico on Saturday night.
Coach Tim Vom Steeg tweaked his starting 11 after the 1-0 loss at Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday. He started 5-5 freshman Fifi Baiden in the midfield, moved sophomore Michael Nonni up top and benched freshman David Opoku and junior Luis Silva.
The new lineup put itself in a tough spot as fifth-ranked UCSB gave up a goal in the first eight minutes. New Mexico’s Devon Sandoval outbattled defender Chris Hunter for the ball in the box and was able to shoot it past Sam Hayden for a 1-0 Lobos’ lead.
The Lobos, whom Vom Steeg described “as blue collar as it gets in college soccer,” held the lead for the remainder of the half.
That had him concerned at halftime.
“I told (the players), ‘I don’t think there is a team that’s better suited for their field and works harder than New Mexico,’ ” Vom Steeg said. “They literally win their games, especially at home, by grinding teams down.”
The Lobos (1-0-1) beat No. 25 Saint Louis in their opener.
The Gauchos (0-1-1) stepped up their game in the second half and put the Lobos on the defensive. They pushed Danny Barrera up top with Garza to apply more pressure on New Mexico’s backline.
It worked as those players would combine for the tying goal. Barrera played the ball in to Garza, who shot the ball over the head of New Mexico goalie Justin Holmes from an extreme angle to knot the score.
Garza, who led the team with seven shots, missed on a couple of excellent opportunities set up by Peter McGlynn and Barrera in the second half.
The Gauchos blew a chance to win it in overtime when Barrera crossed the ball to a wide-open Silva, who blasted his shot over the cross bar.
“Things did go much better tonight, especially in the second half, but it’s still disappointing where we were in the first half and then what we started to do in the second half,” Vom Steeg said. “In a way, we walked away a little disappointed because we didn’t turn the ship. But, in terms of building, we certainly had a lot of good things to build on tonight.”
He noted that Silva is playing at about 50 percent because of sore knee and defender Chris Hunter has been bothered a quad muscle injury.
Both players, however, played key roles in the draw, and the team as a whole took a big step forward.
“It was telling for me that we took over the game in the second half and we took over overtime,” Vom Steeg said. “It says something about where we are fitness-wise and it says something that tonight we really showed up and bounced back from being down a goal in the first half.
“The key,” he added, “is we have to build on things and we have to say, ‘Hey, that worked and let’s go with that.’ Tonight, it finally started to work. We can now build from there.
“It’s what I’ve said all along, we’ve got to sort it out. Once we sort it out we’ll be fine.”
The Gauchos return home Tuesday night to play Creighton at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium.
