Westmont Men’s Soccer traveled across town Saturday night to take on the #4 Santa Barbara Gauchos in the Warrior’s season opener. It was quite a challenging start to the year considering the last time UCSB took the field they were playing Indiana in the NCAA Division I Championship Game. Though losing to the Gauchos 4-3, Westmont had plenty to feel good about.

“I told the guys that in the fifteen years I’ve coached in this game, we have never looked so evenly matched against the Gauchos,” reported Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. I think if you showed up at the stadium without knowing anything about the two teams on the field, you would have thought that this was a pretty close match-up.”

The Gauchos broke onto the scoreboard early when Bryan Byrne headed in a pass from Jeff Murphy just 2:29 into the contest. “That was a killer to give up that goal,” admitted senior Luke Williams. “Coach hammered it into us all week not to let a goal in early so it was really disappointing. But we responded well and didn’t go down two or three to zero.”

Instead, the Warriors responded by tying the game at one apiece at the 13:56 mark. From just short of midfield, an unguarded Williams received an inbounded ball and was able to send a thirty yard pass out to Michael Thompson as he broke for the goal. “Andy Iro, their big guy, went a little too high so Luke played me a perfect ball over the top,” explained Thompson. “I couldn’t get my foot around it at first - it was too high - and so I had to cut him inside. Then I just got on my left and sucked it under the goalie inside.”

Four minutes later, an unguarded Iro, answered back, scoring from thirty yards out. “I thought there was a lot of good about tonight’s game,” said Thompson. “Obviously we scored three goals on a Division I top flight team. But at the same time, we let in four goals which maybe didn’t have to go in. They had great finishes at the end, but we might have been able to close them down a little quicker. We need to work harder on the defensive end, including us at the top. Overall we put in a great effort but we have some fine tuning to do.”

Wolf had similar thoughts about his team’s defensive performance. “I think we had some very good individual performances, but I thought it was a little bit disjointed as a team performance – especially defensively. Most of the time we play UCSB it is more of a direct game and I think our back four were cautious about stepping out for fear the ball would go over their heads. But it wasn’t that kind of a game tonight and we didn’t react well to the difference. Part of that is coaching. We didn’t do a very good job helping our guys see the game was on the ground and through the midfield, not over the top.”

Twenty-nine minutes into the game, UCSB stretched the lead to 3-1 on a goal by Murphy. Brennan Tennelle passed the ball to Murphy who connected from eight yards out on the right side.

But the Warriors would have the last say in the first half when Luke Williams scored four minutes later. “Mikey [Thompson] and Sam [Hartman] did a lot of good work on that one,” acknowledged Williams. “Sam held the ball really well, he did an awesome job. Then he gave the ball to Mike. I knew he was going to hit the ball across the goal so I just went in for the follow-up in case the goalie wasn’t going to be able to hold it. Luckily, [the keeper] tapped it right to me and I just finished it. In four years at Westmont I hadn’t scored in the fall against UCSB and so I was really happy to get that one.”

In the second half, each team gave up a single goal to account for the final score. The Gaucho’s score came just five minutes into the half when Pat Scott dribbled the ball to within 10 yards of the goal and landed an unobstructed shot.

A corner kick opportunity in the 74th minute provided the final score for the Warriors. Sophomore transfer Johnny Alcaraz booted the ball from the right corner and junior Blake Thompson headed the ball past the keeper on the set play.

“Several players had outstanding performances,” reflected Wolf. “I thought Joe Villanueva was outstanding tonight. That’s somewhat surprising because just two days ago we moved him from left back to inside. I thought he was marvelous tonight and that gives me a lot of optimism for our future defending.”

“It was great to have Sam Hartman back. His and Michael’s (Thompson’s) ability to hold the ball is going to allow us to do some things going forward. So, I like that part of our team. I thought Johnny (Alcaraz) was superb, he is a special player. He and Jeff Oehlman in the center of our midfield were very, very good.”

Next up for the Warriors is the Heritage Club Classic at Westmont, September 2-3. On Friday, Fresno Pacific will take on Cal State San Bernardino in a 1:00 p.m. game with Westmont facing Graceland (Iowa) at 3:00. On Saturday, Westmont and Fresno Pacific will trade opponents with the Sunbirds taking on Graceland at 1:00 and the Warriors hosting Cal State San Bernardino at 3:00. Saturday’s games will be preceded by the Women’s Soccer season opener at 11:00 a.m. The women will also face Cal State San Bernardino.