The UCSB men’s soccer team punished Oregon State on the counter on Friday night at Harder Stadium, putting up a season-high in goals to defeat the defending Pac-12 champs, 3-1.
The Gauchos improve to 3-1-1 while dropping a good Beaver team to 1-2-1.
“The game plan was to counter, and in order to counter, we knew that we had to invite them in to open up the space,” Coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “I said that the minute we turn them over, let’s just run fast, and we just took off on them twice. We faced a good team obviously, and it’s a situation tonight where we took full advantage offensively.”
Oregon State looked dangerous early on, pressing high and owning possession in the opening minutes. However, the Beavers couldn’t convert their chances and the Gauchos would capitalize on their aggression.
After a clearance from the Gauchos’ defensive third, two OSU players collided in midfield, and the ball dropped to Nemo Philipp. The Hamburg, Germany native took two dribbles before cutting through the Beavers’ back line with an incisive lead pass to forward Alexis Ledoux. The speedy sophomore collected it and took on two defenders in the box, eventually drawing goalkeeper Luis Castillo out to make a save.
Midfielder Lucas Gonzalez was first to the ball following the deflection, and he was able to connect with a left-footed shot on first contact to open the scoring in the eighth minute.
Perhaps due to a combination of excessive heat and early aggression, Oregon State’s pressure began to dwindle, and the Gauchos continued to gain control of the match. Once again, the home side would hurt the Beavers on the counter in the 23rd minute.
Substitute Pablo Figueroa received a pass with tons of space on the left flank and dropped in a perfect downfield ball to Gonzalez. After controlling it off his head, Gonzalez twisted his body and sent a surreal, instinctual through ball forward with the outside of his foot and his back to the goal. This time, it was forward Finn Ballard McBride needing just one touch to score, sending his shot across to the same left post as Gonzalez’ earlier goal.
When the Beavers did threaten, it was usually down the left wing. In the 28th minute, they were finally rewarded with a goal, as forward Ellis Spikner sent a low cross into David Perez, who beat the Gaucho defense to make it a 2-1 game.
The Gauchos continued to wear the Oregon State defense down in the second half.
Philipp got a good look from the edge of the box in the 59th minute that he hit with full force, but it sailed high. Less than seven minutes later, he would get another chance.
After beating his man with a cheeky dummy and turn, the junior midfielder set himself up for one of his patented left-footed strikes from just outside the 18. Philipp placed his perfectly hit, low curler just past the outstretched arms of Castillo and in off the far left post, giving him his first goal of the season and sealing the win.
Since returning to the lineup after an injured start to the season, Gonzalez has provided a huge boost to the Gaucho offense. He now has an assist in all three of his appearances, while also notching his first goal of the year against the Beavers. In just three games, he has matched both his goal and his assist totals from 2021.
Two-time defending Big West scoring champ Finn Ballard McBride now has a go-ahead goal in two straight outings, both of which went down as game-winners.
Coach Vom Steeg commented on Gonzalez and the rest of the team.
“Lucas has been in-and-out. He hasn’t been himself, and he’s still not there yet, but that was just Lucas at 80 percent, so we have another 20 percent to go,” Vom Steeg said. “Our back three played great and our defense did its job tonight, staying inside of our men and taking care of corner kicks. Caden (Vom Steeg) had a lot of work to do on that left side because they kept dumping balls over his head and he was probably the fastest kid on the field.
“Alexis was Alexis, Sam played great too, and everybody that went in worked really, really hard,” Vom Steeg said.
Gonzalez talked about his incredible assist.
“I saw that the back line was pretty high. I decided to check in and make the run in behind, and Pablo played a beautiful ball. Finn always likes to run in behind, he knows that I like to slip pass, so I was able to feed him. It was a great goal and a beautiful finish from him.”
UCSB continues its three-game home stand at 7 tonight against Utah State. The game is taking place during First Responders Night.
Michael Jorgenson writes about sports for UCSB.
email: sports@newspress.com
