No. 5 UC Santa Barbara benefited from an effective six-on-five offense on Saturday and defeated No. 9 Long Beach State, 10-6, at the 49ers’ Campus Pool.
With the win, UCSB improves to 13-6 on the season and 1-1 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation games. Long Beach falls to 13-6 and 0-3 in league.
The Gauchos took advantage of their seven six-on-five opportunities during the game by scoring during five of them.
Nathan McConnell gave Long Beach the early lead with a man-up goal just two minutes into the game and Milos Vizic stretched that advantage to 2-0 with 4:39 to go in the first quarter. The Gauchos kicked it into gear less than a minute later as Jesse Gillespie scored his first of two goals in the stanza. Eric Van de Mortel tied the game at 2-2 with 2:19 to go before Gillespie gave UCSB its first lead with 1:20 remaining on the clock.
In the second, UCSB held the 49ers scoreless as Brian Shoemaker and Chase Racich each tallied one to give the Gauchos a 5-2 lead at halftime.
Just 45 seconds into the second half, Matt Gronow converted on a power play to give UCSB a four-goal lead. Long Beach’s Hayden Leach was able to find the back of the goal with 4:44 to go, but UCSB answered with goals from Teddy Zhang and Van de Mortel.
Long Beach tallied two more goals in the fourth quarter, but UCSB never let the 49ers within four goals down the final stretch as the Gauchos secured the 10-6 victory.
Shoemaker, Van de Mortel, Gillespie and Racich each notched two goals to lead the Gauchos offensively. In goal, Myles Christian recorded 13 saves.
UCSB will return to Campus Pool on Sunday, Oct. 23 to host No. 2 USC in a MPSF contest. All the action will get underway at noon.
