Men's Soccer Falls at UC Santa Barbara, 2-0

Friday, October 15

Santa Barbara, Calif.

11:00 PM

Duke University

UC Santa Barbara

Ibeagha Training with U.S. Under-20 Squad in France

Men's Soccer Falls at UC Santa Barbara, 2-0

10/16/2010 2:36:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -UC Santa Barbara tallied a pair of second-half goals to earn a 2-0 men's soccer victory over 19th-ranked Duke this evening in front of 11.242 fans at Harder Stadium. The loss for the Blue Devils was the first of the season against a non-conference foe.

"It's never easy going to play across the country," head coach John Kerr said. "And playing a team like Santa Barbara that is high energy and they have some horses out there that can run and pressure. We held up pretty well for long periods of time. We didn't do a good enough job on the offensive side creating chances and keeping meaningful possession."

The Gauchos had the better of the early play as they controlled possession through much of the opening 10 minutes. UCSB continued to put the pressure on the Blue Devils through the first 25 minutes, but Duke's backline stayed strong and continued to thwart the Gauchos scoring opportunities.

UC Santa Barbara (7-3-2) earned the first corner kick of the game as Sam Garza sent a pass to Michael Nonni who had his shot blocked across the endline. Duke defended well over the next few minutes as the Gauchos earned three consecutive corner kicks.

Duke's (5-3-4) best chance of the first half came in the 31st minute when Cole Grossman sent a through ball to a streaking Ryan Finley in the penalty area. Forced to come off of his line, Sam Hayden, made a quality play to pick the ball off the foot of Finley to keep the game tied.

As Duke's stalwart defense continued to hold off the Gauchos, the Blue Devils midfield started to string more passes together to put UC Santa Barbara under more pressure. UCSB put on the heavy pressure in the final two minutes, but could not solve the Duke defense as the squads headed into halftime even at zero.

UC Santa Barbara was the first to get on the board, notching a goal in the 56th minute for a 1-0 lead. After an attempted clear from the Blue Devils got deflected back into their defensive third, the Gauchos were able to serve the ball into the box. The initial cross went too far, but Nonni was able to collect it and send it back across the game where Danny Barrera headed it over Duke goaltender James Belshaw into the ride side netting.

Trailing by one goal, the Blue Devils started to press forward and knock the ball around more. Duke started to create more opportunities, but the Gauchos were able to stop the Duke attack each time.

"I thought after the goal, we felt a little more relaxed," Kerr said. "We got into the game a little bit more and kept possession more and we attacked more. But we weren't able to finish some of those chances."

Garza nearly made it 2-0 in favor of UCSB in the 70th minute as he broke loose down the right flank and sent a shot just wide left of the goal. Less than 10 minutes later, Garza did connect as he netted his sixth of the season to push UCSB's lead to 2-0 with 10:41 left to play. Garza ran onto the ball down the right flank and was able to beat Belshaw with a perfectly placed shot low to the left corner.

UCSB had nine shots to Duke's six for the game. The Gauchos also won the corner kick battle, 6-1, as they posted their seventh win in the past eight games. Both Belshaw and Hayden made two stops apiece in 90 minutes of action.

The Blue Devils return home to Durham for their next game, hosting High Point on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Duke resumes ACC play on Oct. 22 at Clemson at 7 p.m.

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