UCSB forward David Opoku watches his header as he attempts to score late in the game against Seattle. He finished the game with two goals. (Photos by Vince Agapito)
David Opoku continued his productive play, scoring two goals to lead the UCSB men’s soccer team to a 3-1 win over Seattle on Saturday night in the Gauchos’ regular-season opener before 2,555 at Harder Stadium.
But there was a bigger victory on the night for the No. 8-ranked Gauchos and that was seeing starters Peter McGlynn and Fifi Baiden return to the field after getting wiped out by a couple of brutal challenges from Seattle players in the second half.
McGlynn said he feared he broke his leg when Redhawks defender Josh Alvarez flew into the Gaucho senior with his cleats up on a 50-50 ball in the midfield. Alvarez was issued a red card and ejected from the match in 55th minute.
“I felt a burning sensation and my leg went a little bit numb, and I was like, ‘Wow, the season is over,” McGlynn said of the ugly incident.
Defender Peter Schmetz scored the Gauchos third goal of the night to put the game away for UCSB.
Four minutes later, Seattle’s Marshall Kosaka was shown the red card after stomping on the leg of Baiden.
“I can’t lose either one of those two guys, and I’m holding my breath,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said of watching McGlynn and Baiden lying on the field. “I thought both of those challenges were really late. The one on the side with McGlynn was scary. (The Seattle player) just went in feet first; he left his feet.
“I was less worried about Fifi because I saw that play,” he continued. “On McGlynn’s, we’ve all seen that … the guy goes straight leg in and the next thing you know you got a broken leg.”
After being on the ground for a couple of minutes, both Gauchos got up and walked off the field under their own power. They were back in the game in the 79th minute.
“All in all we’ll take that and move on, but it was definitely scary,” said Vom Steeg.
The Gauchos were dominating the game before the nasty tackles.
The McGlynn-Opoku combination just missed on a chance in the first seven minutes as Opoku volleyed McGlynn’s cross over the bar.
But it all came together in the 18th minute. McGlynn again raced past his defender, turned the corner and fed the ball to Opoku, who tapped it in.
“Against Westmont we did the same thing,” Opoku said. “That’s what we’ve been practicing the whole time, him going with the ball wide and me going to the near post and being on the backside of the defender.”
McGlynn is obviously pleased with the results.
“I hope it continues during the season. That’s two assists in two games,” he said.
“The best thing about it was (McGlynn) split those two defenders to create space for himself,” Vom Steeg said. “That was a very, very good play, and David made a good run and a good finish.”
Seattle came close to equalizing in the last minute of the first half on a shot by Brandon Hamer from close range. But Gaucho goalkeeper André Grandt reacted quickly and palmed the ball off the post to deny Hamer.
“That’s going to take us far this year. That was an amazing save,” Vom Steeg said. “(Grandt) showed incredible quickness … he saw where it might go. We always say here at UCSB, ‘You need the one save,’ and we got that tonight.”
Opoku made it 2-0 in the 48th minute, stealing a Seattle pass on the left side, dribbling in and beating goalkeeper Jake Feener with a shot to the far post.
With a two-goal lead and a two-man advantage, the Gauchos seemed to lose their spark and focus.
Seattle, meanwhile, kept battling and took advantage of an unorganized UCSB defense to score a goal on a counterattack in the 71st minute. Travis Helm got the ball out wide left and crossed it to Kevin Cook, who beat Grandt.
UCSB finally put the Redhawks away in the 87th minute when 6-foot-6 Peter Schmetz redirected a ball from Sam Garza for his first goal as a Gaucho.
The Gauchos played without starters Luis Silva and Machael David, who were serving suspensions for red cards issued in last season’s second-round playoff loss at Cal.
Nic Ryan and Baiden played well running the central midfield in their place.
“I liked our energy tonight, I thought we really got after it and I thought we created some good chances,” Vom Steeg said of the opening-night performance. “We got the season off to a good start (despite) having two players out.”
