By
Jacob Norling
August 20, 2022
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) On Saturday night in Santa Barbara, Westmont Men's Soccer paid their annual visit to their crosstown neighbors in Isla Vista. Westmont's defense put up a fair fight in the first half, but ultimately, the Warriors fell to the UCSB Gauchos by a score of 4-0 at Harder Stadium.
"While it doesn't feel like we took a step forward tonight, we absolutely did," said Westmont head coach
Dave Wolf on the night he officially began his final season. "I've got to make sure that this team sees the progress we made tonight. Training camp still has a week to go. The regular season doesn't start until September.
"There's still time to get our feet under us and get confident, and we have to be able to help them see that."
In the first half, the story was junior keeper
Abraham Arteaga who single-handedly kept the Warriors in the contest. Arteaga made six spectacular stops including two point-blank kick-saves, and another pair of rejections that required the keeper to flick the ball over his high-post.
"Abraham wasn't originally scheduled to get the start tonight, and he had to make a very quick adjustment," reflected Wolf. "Abraham responded really well to the short notice and responded really well in this environment. That's a credit to him being mentally sharp and having a strong next-man-up mentality."
Arteaga's most impressive save came in the 42nd minute when Alexis Ledoux shot a rocket from 10 yards out that appeared to have Arteaga beat inside the high-post. Instead, Arteaga planted his feet and fisted the ball up and over the crossbar.
Arteaga's highlight sent a wave of hope through an emphatic Westmont bench, but on the ensuing corner, Westmont center back
Landon Amaral made a costly error that led to the erasing of Arteaga's clean sheet.
Amaral, stationed in-between the goal line and six-yard box, had the corner kick soar directly at him. In an attempt to clear the ball, Amaral attempted to trap the ball with his chest before booting it. Instead, Amaral chested the ball in the opposite direction and passed a sprawling Arteaga.
Miguel Alvarado made a remarkable play to save the own-goal when he slid in behind Arteaga and kick-saved the ball momentarily. However, the ball redirected right into the lap of UCSB's Finn Mallard McBride who then tapped home the first goal of the night.
In the 55th minute, the Gauchos doubled their lead thanks to a perfect cross off the left foot of Pablo Figueroa. Figueroa carried the ball down the near sideline without a single Warrior threatening within ten yards. With room to take a touch, the left-footer set himself up to send a ball right to the heart of the six-yard box.
On the receiving end of the cross was Salvador Aguilar who, with a header, drilled a ball to the back of the net.
Three minutes later, the Gaucho's scored another goal off of a header when Filip Basili scored on a pseudo-alley-oop. Off a cross from the near side, Basili left the ground and headed the ball over the fingertips off Arteaga, but off of the crossbar. The ball shot straight up, and on the rebound, Basili didn't miss a beat.
Basili jumped right back up, and on his second header in as many touches, he found the net to put UCSB up 3-0.
The Gauchos added another goal in the 77th minute, and did not allow the Warriors a single shot on goal in a 4-0 shutout.
"I liked a lot about our team tonight," said Wolf. "The one piece I didn't like was the fact that we didn't capitalize on chances to hurt them. We could have hurt them five or six different times, and we never even got shots.
"At some point, somebody has to put the ball in the back of the net. I realize I can't use games like this as a barometer, but there are things you can take away from these games. We lacked a killer instinct in and around the goal tonight, and we have to fix that."
The Warriors return to action on Friday, September 2 when they take on the Azusa Pacific Cougars at 7:00 p.m. Then, on Wednesday, September 7, the club returns home to take on Whitter at 12:30 p.m. for the first home match of Wolf's 32nd and final season.
