News|Schedule / Results|Roster|Officers &Coaches|

UCSB Tops Toreros On Last Minute Goal

Box Score

Feb. 20, 2015

San Diego, CA - Kelsey Trepa (San Marcos, CA) scored her free position shot with seventeen seconds remaining in the game to cap off a UCSB comeback on the road at University of San Diego. The Gauchos had been down by as many as four goals twice in the game, once in the first half and then again in the second half. UCSB battled back and with time winding down the score was 14-14. Trepa had just pulled off a nice spin move up top on her way to goal for her first win-the-game attempt and was about to shoot when a Torero defender fouled. Her subsequent free position was interrupted when San Diego fouled again to halt play. Non-plussed, on the next restart, Trepa netted her first goal of the game to give her team the win. It was the third straight one goal contest between the two teams, dating back to a 13-12 win for UCSB April 13, 2014.

The Gauchos made the drive the same day of the game and hit enough traffic they did not get to their hotel in time for a few hours of down time before leaving from there to the field. Instead, UCSB crawled down the 101, the 405, the 5 and the 805 and made it to the Manchester Village turf on the USD campus just about in time for warm-ups.

So, slow start for UCSB and with the hole they found themselves in they needed some sparks. Cyrena Malkowski (Lake Forest, CA) was one spark for the Gauchos. The freshman goal keeper played the last 37:32 of the game and had 6 saves while allowing only 4 goals. The entire UCSB defense were their own spark stepping out on ball and, yes, getting beat sometimes but also making things happen and causing San Diego turnovers.

Sophomore Maddy Montague (Aliso Niguel, CA) was another spark. The Gauchos were down 12-13 and San Diego goalie Sophia Rubino (Penn Valley, CA) was in no hurry to clear the ball, standing back and just looking for a teammate to get open. UCSB junior Mari Cajandig (Davis, CA) left her mark and rushed Rubino, who connected on her clear, but it was when that Torero made the second pass upfield that something good happened for UCSB. Montague came out of seemingly nowhere to pick off the San Diego pass and then found Cajandig all alone. She was down at the offensive end after her move to go pressure the goalie. A long pass from Montague to Cajandig resulted in Cajandig scoring and the Gauchos had tied it 13-13 making something happen for themselves.

After a San Diego goal put them up again 14-13 sophomore Melissa Hsu (Danville, CA) scored unassisted on a dodge from the top, beating her defender and then another defender and then the goalie to tie it 14-14 on a lefty shot. UCSB won the draw and then advanced it and that and all the heroics along the way set up Trepa for her game winner. Cajandig finished with 6 goals while junior Madison Sabbag (Mt. View, CA) led all scorers with 6 goals and 2 assists. 

UCSB improved to 5-3 overall and has a day off before playing at San Diego State on Sunday at 11:00am. San Diego drops to 0-4 and are idle until they travel to Arizona State University February 28th.