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

Gauchos Surge to Come From Behind on BYU

Box Score

Feb. 14, 2009

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB scored the final four goals in their Saturday match with Brigham Young at the Santa Barbara Shootout to steal the game from the Cougars. With 4:58 remaining in the game UCSB tied it at 8-8 after being down 3-5 at half-time and 4-6, 5-7 and 6-8 at different points in the second half. Anytime the Gauchos got a goal to pull within one the Cougars would get another to distance themselves. Eventually a two goal cushion wasn't enough for Brigham Young.

"That was frustrating, being within reach so many times and then having them answer back to pull two goals ahead again and again," said head coach  Paul Ramsey.  "But then how we regained our composure, rallied each other and responded ourselves got me delirious."

"And 8 players scored at least a goal for us to get this done which makes it even better."

Here's what made Ramsey's head spin. After a Cougar goal with 12:03 remaining in the game that put them ahead 8-6 the UCSB defense got busy holding the Cougars to no more goals. Then the Gauchos truly came alive on offense and scored four unanswered goals to pull within one, finally tie it and then pull ahead. Junior  Samantha Lutz (San Diego, CA) pulled off a split dodge from the top right corner, beat two defenders to the inside and scored an unassisted goal left-handed to make it 7-8 still in favor of BYU. Then came the only tie since the score was 1-1 way back at the beginning of the game three minutes into the contest. Freshman  Megan Dawe (Martinez, CA) turned a coast to coast run into a goal and it was 8-8 with 4:58 remaining. Just over a minute later sophomore  Alyssa Nelsen (Denver, CO) duplicated Lutz's dodge to goal with a 'going righty, no I'm going lefty' move that put UCSB ahead for the first time in the game with 3:38 remaining. An insurance goal on a nice assist from junior  Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) to Nelsen with 55 seconds left iced it for UCSB.

UCSB improves to 4-1 and has two games left on their Shootout schedule. The Gauchos face defending national champion Colorado State at 11:45am and then face Georgia at 2:15pm. CSU is 2-1 so far at the Shootout and Georgia is 1-2. Two places to get all the Shootout scores right now are on the Shootout page of this website and LaxPower.