Luis Silva scored two goals and assisted on the other two Saturday night as UC Santa Barbara held on for a 4-3 Big West Conference men’s soccer victory at Cal State Fullerton.
The No. 19 ranked Gauchos improved to 11-5-1 overall and 4-4 in the Big West, moving into fourth place in the standings with 12 points, one point ahead of their next opponent, Cal State Northridge (3-3-2, 11 points).
The Titans fell to 7-6-4 and 1-5-2.
Silva’s second goal gave UCSB a 3-0 lead five minutes into the second half and that awakened the Fullerton offense.
Freshmen Mark Vasquez (25 seconds later) and Gerzon Blanco (in the 69th minute) scored their first collegiate goals to bring Fullerton within, 3-2.
Fifi Baiden’s first goal of the year put UCSB back up, 4-2, in the 78th minute but Fullerton scored one more time in the 81st minute as Oscar Aguero converted a free kick from just outside the penalty box. Fullerton could not come up with a serious challenge in the final 9 minutes.
Silva’s first goal came in the third minute when he took a cross from James Kiffe out of a corner kick situation and beat CSF goalkeeper Trevor Whiddon. Silva fed Josue Madueno on a 2-on-1 rush after a Fullerton turnover for a score that made it 2-0 exactly 22 minutes into the match.
Fullerton had not scored more than one goal in a match vs. UCSB in the last 13 meetings but tonight’s outburst came up short and the Gauchos won for the 15th time in the last 16 meetings.
