By Zach DeMarcus
August 18, 2018
 
(GOLETA, Calif.) The Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara wasted no time in tonight's exhibition against Westmont Men's Soccer. UCSB scored five goals in the first 32 minutes of play, including four goals in five minutes, and went on to win the 56th Bryant's Cup by a score of 7-0.
 
Westmont won last year's faceoff by a score of 2-1 – their first victory over UCSB since 2000. The Gaucho victory extends their series advantage to 28-24-4 all time.
 
Westmont head coach Dave Wolf said, "I thought we were loose technically, soft, and afraid. When you make a mathematically equation out of those three things it equals something not good. If you bring those qualities to this game you've got problems. I think we were guilty in all three of those areas and it was disappointing."
 
The Gauchos kicked off their barrage of first half goals in the 12th minute when Noah Billingsley crossed a ball in from the left side to Rodney Michael who dumped the ball off to Ignacio Tellechea who hammered it into the net to put the Gauchos up 1-0.
 
In the 27th minute, Michael crossed a ball in from the right side to Axel Mendez who finished it past Lalo Delgado – bringing the score to 2-0. A Westmont foul in the box led to a penalty kick in the 29th minute that was taken and executed past the keeper by Thibault Candia extending the lead to 3-0.
 
Candia found the back of the net again just two minutes later in the 31st minute. Carter Clemmensen picked up the ball in the midfield and beat the last defender before dishing it off to Candia who made a move past Delgado and finished the ball into the open net.
 
The fifth Gaucho goal came two minutes later in the 32nd minute. Candia hit a through ball to Clemmensen who found the back of the net. This extended the Gaucho lead to 5-0 and finished off a five-minute stretch in which the Gauchos scored four goals.
 
"I actually think it was one of the better starts we've had in a long times in terms of getting on the ball and moving the ball. Once it took a turn then it seemed like the ability to fight, recover, or get on stable ground wasn't there at all. The first half felt like 90 minutes. The first half could not have ended soon enough," said Wolf.
 
Tellechea would add his second goal of the evening in the 52nd minute and Mateo Restrepo Mejia scored the seventh and final goal in the 82nd minute.
 
"I think the bottom line is we didn't look a real confident bunch," commented Wolf. "You didn't see us play a lot of first time passes tonight. One of the reasons that you don't play first time passes is because of uncertainty – the belief system isn't strong enough to do it. You saw very little of that out of us tonight and that was a problem."
 
There were a few bright spots for Wolf as he said, "From a personality stand point, Gabe Thurner and Panchito (Castro) came in and wanted to get on the ball, communicate, and engage the game. I was impressed with that. I also thought some of the young guys who came in at the end, KC Smith, Wyatt Babineau, Memo Mendoza, they tried to play. That was encouraging and good to see."
 
Moving forward Wolf said, "We need to find a group or combination of players that will play with a little bit of personality. I think that was really lacking initially tonight. To me, that feels like the starting point right now. Looking for guys that are verbal, will engage the game, and play with a little bit of personality," finished Wolf.
 
The Warriors won't get much of a break as four of the their next five opponents are ranked in the NAIA top-25. That stretch will begin Wednesday on the road against #23 UC Merced. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.