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UCSB Downs #8 BYU in 14-12 Win

Box Score

Feb. 14, 2013

Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB was behind for the first time in a game this season but rallied to take the match back from 8th ranked Brigham Young University at the RecCen Turf Complex Stadium. The Cougars had a run of five straight goals through the end of the first half and the start of the second half. The run gave them a 9-8 lead with about 20 minutes remaining in the game. The Gauchos scored to tie it and then BYU scored again to go up 10-9. UCSB was facing their first ranked opponent and suddenly here was a team that could stay with them and, at times, looked to be even faster than the Gauchos.

It was crunch time for UCSB. Heart, desire, some fresh legs and evenly spread talent made the difference for the Gauchos over the final moments. Five UCSB players contributed to a scoring run that broke the game open. The rally by UCSB was fast and furious. In just 7 minutes Katie Hubbert (San Jose, CA), Lindsay Alex (Tustin, CA), Blair Evans (Salinas, CA), Katie Mitchell (Lafayette, CA) and Alena Riggs (Laguna Niguel, CA) notched a goal apiece to put the Gauchos up 14-10. Then, over the final two minutes of the game the athletic Cougars won a draw control and scored with that possession. They followed that up by taking advantage of an errant UCSB pass while the Gauchos were trying to run out the clock and got another goal with 15 seconds remaining in the game. Those two late goals provided the final 14-12 margin.

UCSB outshot the Cougars 31-22 but shooting with defensive pressure for the first time this season resulted in attackers providing some easy saves for BYU goalie Megan McCleary (Provo, UT). The result wasn't a good ratio of goals to shots for the Gauchos. UCSB shot 45% compared to the 54% shot by the Cougars.

"We could have shot better," said head coach Paul Ramsey, "but we could have folded under their pressure too and instead we rallied and played harder to make up for it."

"That resulted in some additional opportunities on offense at a crucial time."

For the fourth game in a row UCSB had a different leading scorer. This time it was Mitchell who led UCSB and tied for scoring honors at 5 goals. Brooke Smith (Carlsbad, CA) also had 5 goals for BYU. Alex from UCSB led all players on points with 2 goals and 4 assists. 

Senior goalie Megan Hughes (Tustin, CA) closed the game with 6 saves in the second half after stepping into the middle of the BYU onslaught, entering the game in the middle of their five goal run. Hughes eventually started turning them back often enough in the period to give the UCSB offense the chance to do their work.

UCSB improved to 4-0 while BYU dropped to 0-1. The Gauchos next face top ranked Colorado State in a 12:00pm match-up at the UCSB Recreation Center Sports Complex Stadium on Saturday. BYU has a short turnaround. They play again tomorrow in a game with Michigan State at 1:30pm in the opening game of the 25th Annual Santa Barbara Shootout.