On a soggy Friday night at Harder Stadium, a series of unfortunate events went against the UCSB men’s soccer team, and the Gauchos suffered their worst loss in 18 years. Cal State Bakersfield completed a Cinderella run through the Big West tournament, scoring a 5-1 victory in the championship game.
The Roadrunners had been historically stingy against UCSB, allowing only two goals in their last five matches, four of them ties, including a scoreless draw during the regular season. When the visitors rook a 1-0 lead on a stunning 25-yard free kick by Filip Arras in the sixth minute, it was a troubling sign for the Gauchos.
But they drew even at 1-1 in the 26th minute, as Steinar Bjornsson cashed in a penalty kick awarded from a Bakersfield handball. It was the 11th goal of the season for Bjornsson, a sophomore from Iceland.
An offensive surge by the Roadrunners turned the game around. They found the back of the net twice in a two-minute span, getting a go-ahead goal by Oshea Foster and a sudden laser from the top of the box by Joey Velasquez for a 3-1 lead.
Shortly later, the Gauchos went down to 10 men when Mateos drew a red card for a hard foul.
“A crazy shot and a red card – everything that could go wrong,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “We had to chase them the rest of the game.”
The Gauchos had their chances in the second half, when they took 14 shots, but all their attempts were blocked or missed the target. Bjornsson had a blast that goalkeeper Zenden Hart saved off the crossbar. Kaden Standish hit the crossbar in the first half.
“We’ve outshot everybody,” lamented Vom Steeg after the final statistics showed the Gauchos with a 23-14 advantage in shots.
In their effort to catch up while playing shorthanded, the Gauchos were vulnerable to counterattacks. Bakersfield’s last two goals were scored by Jesse Wangusi and Mpawenayo Jackson, who had no defenders marking them as they bore down on UCSB keeper Owen Beninga.
UCSB’s record fell to 9-6-5 in Vom Steeg’s 28th season. Only twice before have his teams lost by four goals – a 5-1 defeat to Kentucky in his second game in 1999, and 6-2 outburst by Wake Forest in 2008.
Bakersfield (7-4-7), the No. 4 seed in the Big West tournament, earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, while the Gauchos have the slimmest of chances to receive an at-large bid.
