Fateful victory

Gaucho Men’s Soccer Best in the Nation

by Ethan Stewart

Even the staunchest skeptic would have a
hard time denying that higher forces seemed to be at work in recent
weeks as the UCSB men’s soccer team marched to its first-ever
national championship title, which the team earned last weekend on
a bitterly cold, ice-covered pitch in St. Louis, Missouri. Unseeded
and just a matter of months removed from a very mediocre mid-season
record of 7-6, the Gauchos played a nearly flawless brand of soccer
during their tournament run, culminating in a hard fought 2-1
victory over UCLA on Sunday afternoon and only the university’s
second national championship in any sport.

The Gauchos’ road to their second championship match in three
years was not free of trials: They strung together come-from-behind
wins and an upset over soccer powerhouse Northwestern University in
the quarterfinals before they even made it to their scheduled final
four showdown with the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest last Friday
night. But before the Gauchos could take the field against the
number two seed Wake Forest squad, Mother Nature weighed in with a
brutal bout of winter weather, leaving much of the St. Louis area
without power and postponing the match until Saturday. When the
game did finally get underway, the two teams battled the elements
and each other for 110 minutes with nary a goal, thanks to the
truly stellar play of senior goalkeeper Tyler Reynish. It wasn’t
until a back-and-forth exchange of penalty kicks — in which the
Gauchos ultimately prevailed with yet another come-from-behind 4-3
win — that UCSB’s chance to play for a national championship was
finalized.