SBCC led 1-0 and 2-1 on Friday afternoon but couldn’t seal the deal and settled for a 2-2 men’s soccer tie with L.A. Mission at La Playa Stadium.
The Vaqueros are 5-3-2 overall and 1-2-2 in conference. The Eagles are 5-3-2 and 3-1-1.
Kyran Johal popped in a header in the 17th minute on a cross from Jason Winicki. Jonathan Mora got the play started with a chip shot up the right side. Jose Pelayo tied it in the 36th minute with a left-footed shot from 28 yards out.
In the 61st minute, Hadyn Dickinson headed in a corner kick from the right by Aaron Aaberg to make it 2-1. It was the Vaqueros’ first header goal off a corner this year. The Vaqueros lead the state in corner kicks (78) and shots per game (16.8).
“It’s about time, it feels like we’ve had about a 100 corners this year and this was our first goal on a header,” said Dickinson, a 6-1 sophomore defender from London, England. “(Assistant coach) Goff (Boyoko) had us doing header drills in practice yesterday and we worked on that for about an hour. We attacked our positions and the ball fell for me on a beautiful delivery from Aaron.
“It’s the story of our lives right now (not being able to hold leads). We seem to get too comfortable and let up but I think we’ll turn that around.”
Mission tied the game in the 72nd minute when Carlos Solorio was stymied by SBCC goalie Angel Cervantes but Erick Villatora scored into an open net on the rebound.
SBCC outshot the Eagles 16-14 and it was equally close in shots on goal, 8-7 in favor of the Vaqueros.
Head coach John Sisterson missed the match due to illness.
“We worked on our corners in practice,” said assistant coach Goffin Boyoko. “We’ve tried more corners than anyone and we have some big players. I keep telling the guys that every corner is a real chance to score. It’s great to finally get a header to go in off a corner.
“We need a clean sheet to win games. What’s sad is when we make mistakes, we don’t take care of them and as soon as we make a little one, we get punished. We competed well today, if we had just scored one more, we would have won.”
Kebba Nyang had several chances to score from the right side in the final 10 minutes and Nicolas Genthon had a point-blank shot saved in the 89th minute.
Santa Barbara has two home games next week – Tuesday vs. Citrus at 7:30 p.m. and Friday vs. Santa Monica at 2 p.m
