In a battle of the nation’s fifth-ranked programs, UC Santa Barbara came out on top Saturday afternoon with a 12-10 victory over visiting UC Irvine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game at Campus Pool.
With the win, UCSB improves to 15-9 on the season and 3-4 in the MPSF. UC Irvine falls to 14-11 and 2-6 in league play.
The first quarter was a seesaw battle with the teams exchanging two goals apiece. Brian Shoemaker opened the scoring with an outside shot sent to the high right corner of the Anteater goal with 6:13 to go in the quarter. Two minutes later, Trent Baxter knotted the game with the first of his three goals. Eric Van de Mortel regained the Gaucho lead with a counter attack goal, but a six-on-five goal by Alan Robertson with just 1:34 left on the clock tied the game at 2-2.
UCSB opened the second quarter with a three-goal run that gave the Gauchos the lead, which they never relinquished. Shoemaker opened the run with a skip shot. Nick Tomasello followed with a goal out of two-meters while he was double teamed and then, Lazar Komadinic tallied a goal with a skip shot from outside.
UC Irvine capitalized on consecutive power play to cut its deficit to three goals, but UCSB would have the last say in the half when Jake Miller scored a counter attack goal off of a beautiful cross-pool pass from Scott Bishop.
Down, but not out, the Anteaters opened the third quarter on fire, posting two goals in the first three minutes. Chase Racich momentarily stopped the scoring spree when he quickly redirected the ball off of a great pass from Jesse Gillespie with 5:14 on the clock. Just 13 seconds later, Robertson scored to cut the UCSB lead to two goals and on their following possession, the Anteaters drew a penalty. Baxter converted the free shot to bring Irvine within one goal.
Derek Shoemaker and Scott Bishop tallied consecutive goals to give UCSB a three-goal cushion, but Nick Pfeil collected the rebound off of a Anteater shot and tossed it into the goal to make the score 10-8 heading into the final stanza.
Brian Pickford brought UCI back within one goal with 4:30 to go in the game, but the Gauchos once again gave themselves space with Chase Racich and Derek Shoemaker’s second goals of the game.
Winston Newland managed one more UCI goal with 16 seconds to go, but UCSB had the win sealed up.
Jay Lovero had eight saves during the first three quarters for the Gauchos. Myles Christian concluded the game and made three stops in the final quarter. Jimmy Friedrich had 10 saves for the Anteaters.
UCSB will conclude its regular season next Saturday, Nov. 19 at No. 1 UCLA. The game is slated for a 7 pm first sprint.
UCSB 12, UC Irvine 10
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
UCI 2 1 5 2 10
UCSB 2 5 3 2 12
UC Irvine Goals: Trent Baxter 3, Alan Robertson 2, Winston Newland 2, Brian Pickford, Mitch Wise, Nick Pfeil.
UC Irvine Saves: Jimmy Friedrich 10.
UCSB Goals: Brian Shoemaker 2, Derek Shoemaker 2, Eric Van de Mortel 2, Chase Racich 2, Lazar Komadinic, Scott Bishop, Nick Tomasello, Jake Miller.
UCSB Saves: Jay Lovero 8, Myles Christian 3.
