Oregon State Punishes Santa Barbara Mistakes, Takes 3-1 Win Over #25 Gauchos
The Oregon State Men's Soccer team held off a furious UC Santa Barbara offense in the first half of Sunday night's contest, and capitalized on a few mistakes along to take a 3-1 win over the #25 Gauchos. The win is the Beavers first in weeks, and their second victory over a top 25 program this season. The win puts the Beavers record at 3-1-3 this season.
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While Kaden Block got the Gauchos the first shot of the night, the Beavers almost immediately took control of the game. In the fourth minute, Max Eisenberg grabbed the ball from a defender in the UC Santa Barbara penalty box and passed the ball to Wyatt Borso who had a wide open look at the net. Borso nailed his shot, giving the Beavers an early 1-0 lead.
The Gauchos almost responded in the 10th minute, after a corner kick set up a Steinar Bjornsson pass to Peleg Brown, who deflected a shot off of Sava Catlett for what would have been the tying goal. A review placed one of the Gauchos offside however, letting the Beavers maintain their lead.
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The disallowed goal seemed to light a fire under the Gauchos, who began to put a lot of pressure on Nicolson and the Beaver defense. Donovan Sessoms forced two saves from the Oregon State goalie, and Steinar Bjornsson another, while a Viggo Gustavson shot went just wide.
After a bit of Beaver offense, the Gauchos went right back on the attack, with Donovan Sessoms forcing another Nicolson save and a beautiful shot from Kaden Standish banging off the right post. Santa Barbara finally got their goal in the 25th minute, with Donovan Sessoms finding a lane to pass the ball pass Jacob Zapien, finding Peleg Brown in front of the goal for an open shot, flying just past the fingers of John Nicolson.
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The Beavers got the lead back in the 32nd minute, when Tim Hoffman grabbed the ball from Santa Barbara defender Drew Kamienski in front of the goal and caught goalkeeper Owen Beninga out of place, putting Oregon State back up 2-1. That would be the score at the half.
After some back and forth at the start of the second half, Oregon State found their third goal of the night in the 55th minute. After a throw in Michael Nesci took the ball and fired a deep shot from just outside the penalty box, finding a perfect gap past Owen Beninga and into the top left corner, putting the Beavers up 3-1.
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That last Beaver goal seemed to drain Santa Barbara's energy. The Gauchos got a few good chances at a goal in the second half, including a bicycle kick from Steinar Bjornsson in the 64th minute that produced John Nicolson's best save of the night, but that was as close as they got, handing the Beavers their first win in weeks.
Oregon State's non-conference schedule is almost wrapped up. In their final game before the start of Pac-12 play, the Beavers will host Seattle in only their second home game of the season. The mtach is set for Wednesday, September 23rd, with kick off set for 7 PM PT.
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Having grown up in Pocatello, home of the Idaho State Bengals, John Severs is a lifelong fan of small schools that don't always deliver a lot of wins. Prior to writing for On SI, John covered the Beavers for SB Nation's Oregon State blog Building the Dam, with a focus on baseball and women's basketball. When he's not watching college sports he spends most of his time reading, playing video games and annoying cats.