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Aug 14, 2023

UCSB Wears Down Westmont in Second Half With Four Goals

There was something new in Saturday’s annual UC Santa Barbara-Westmont men’s soccer Community Shield Match. For the first time in 25 years, Tim Vom Steeg’s Gauchos were facing a Westmont squad that

There was something new in Saturday’s annual UC Santa Barbara-Westmont men’s soccer Community Shield Match.

For the first time in 25 years, Tim Vom Steeg’s Gauchos were facing a Westmont squad that wasn’t coached by Dave Wolf.

Morgan Cathey is the new man in charge as Wolf retired after 31 years at the helm.

Cathey employed a style of play that Vom Steeg wasn’t used to seeing from the Warriors. That, and outstanding goalkeeping, allowed Westmont to keep the game close in the first half.

The Gauchos made adjustments in the second half and erupted for four goals en route to a 5-1 exhibition victory before 873 fans at Harder Stadium.

It was the fifth straight win for the Gauchos, who lead the all-time series 32-24-4.

Nemo Philipp, Lucas Gonzalez, Kaden Standish and Kavi Krishnan scored the second-half goals for the the Gauchos, who led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a penalty-kick goal from Alexis Ledoux.

Westmont avoided the shutout with a goal in the 66th minute from Michael Stull.

“I coached against Dave Wolf for 25 years, so we just had no idea (what to expect),” said Vom Steeg of playing a Westmont team under the guidance of Cathey, who previously coached at Cal State Stanislaus. “People told me they were committed to build out of the back and move players around. So, until you see it… they were absolutely committed. The keeper was better with his feet than I anticipated, so they always had a plus-one in the first half between the goalie and the center back.”

The stellar play of goalkeeper Brady Highfill and center back Barrett Goodman kept the game from becoming blowout early. Goodman, a Santa Barbara High alum who transferred to Westmont from Western Washington, broke up several UCSB advances.

“We only acquired him a few weeks ago, transferring from another Division 2 school, and he’s been unbelievable from the first day,” said Cathey. “You can see we try to build out every time and he can do it. I’ve never had a central defender be able to slot in and do the things that he can do in such a natural way. And, he loves defending. To find people that love defending is very hard. Nowadays, everybody loves attacking. He loves defending.”

The Gauchos also had to deal with the 6-foot-5 Highfill, who needed all of his length to thwart great scoring chances. He finished with 10 saves.

“He was big time today,” said Cathey. “He had a great first few days and I thought that he was not only in control stopping shots, but I thought his distribution was phenomenal. For how many times he had to make decisions, I can’t fault him on anything except some proficiency in the longer pass.”

Highfill made his presence known in the 12th minute, tipping a blistering shot from Nalu Mack over the cross bar. In the 18th minute, he denied Nicolas Hald Willumsen with a sprawling kick from close range and frustrated Hald Willumsen again 15 minutes later with a diving stop.

His most impressive work, though, came in wild sequence in the 36th minute. He blocked a pair of point-blank shots and tipped a third shot out of bounds.

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The Gauchos, however, did get one past him on a penalty kick by Alexis Ledoux. It came in the 16th minute after Lucas Gonzalez fed a through ball to Philipp, who was pushed in the back just as he shot the ball in the penalty area.

Still, to be down by only one goal against UCSB was a positive for Westmont, which managed to create some scoring chances of its own in the first half.

“We definitely saw how they were going to try and press us and I think we solved the solutions,” said Cathey. “We try to teach our players to read situations, be in control of the opponent when we have the ball, and I thought in the first half we did it really, really well.”

Unfortunately for the Warriors, they lost Goodman to a leg injury, UCSB made adjustments, forced turnovers and broke the game open.

“They were linking up a lot of passes, so we went into halftime, made an adjustment and we took that away in the second half,” said Vom Steeg. “They would have to find another answer, and at that point our guys got going.”

Philipp, Ledoux and Gonzalez had Westmont’s defense on its heels.

“I thought Nemo was excellent, Alexis and Nemo. Then Lucas got going in the second half,” said Vom Steeg.

Philipp made it 2-0 in the 47th minute, taking a shot pass from Gonzalez and beating Highfill with a diagonal shot to the far post and out of the goalkeeper’s reach.

Ledoux and Gonzalez combined on a sweet breakout play, with Ledoux squaring a pass to his teammate for the finish and 3-0 lead in the 61st minute.

“I thought our break was excellent,” said Vom Steeg.

Stull got Westmont on the board, capitalizing on a Gaucho turnover for an unassisted goal.

The UCSB substitutes got into the act in the final 10 minutes. David Danquah took the ball deep into the box and flipped a cross that deflated to Standish, who put his shot away for the fourth goal in the 81st minute.

Krishnan finished a corner kick from Henrique Bueno in the 87th minute to complete the scoring.

UCSB’s next outing will be its regular-season opener against Oral Roberts on Friday at Harder Stadium.

Westmont has two more exhibition games before beginning its season at home against Saint Martin’s of Washington in the Heritage Classic on Aug. 31.

— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.