SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer was defeated Saturday night in the Big West Tournament Final, 4-0, by fellow regular season titleholders UC Santa Barbara in Harder Stadium.

MOMENTUM SHIFTS
Each talented side looked to control the game from the onset. Possession changed hands with no real offensive chances to show for until the 15th minute. UC Santa Barbara (12-4-4, 6-1-2) earned a corner kick punching it toward the near post. A failed clearance rolled toward the top of the box with Ramses Martinez running onto it and firing a bullet in to make it 1-0 Gauchos.

The match opened up a bit a putting a chances on frame, but keepers Gordon Botterill and Leroy Zeller stood tall. A pivotal turning point came down just before the half.

Kwabena Boateng held the ball in the defensive third fending off Gaucho Salvador Aguilar. Aguilar gave him a shove and won the ball streaking in from the wing to have a shot and beating Botterill to add to the lead, 2-0, in the 44th minute. The Anteaters and their staff were unhappy with the decision and made their voices heard earning yellow cards for keeper Botterill and head coach Yossi Raz. As play continued in the final minutes of the half, a foul from Oscar Cervantes was called and earned him a yellow card for his second of the half getting him sent off. The 'Eaters would head to the locker room down to 10 men and trailing 2-0 with 45 minutes to turn it around.

FINAL SCORE: UC SANTA BARBARA 4, UC IRVINE 0
Coach Raz and the staff were left to go on the attack to make up the deficit while down a man. Their chances weren't able to find the back of the net while UCSB made the most of it scoring off another failed corner clearance in the 54th minute, and creating a breakaway in the 66th minute to finish off the 4-0 result.

"It's one thing to come back from 2-0 on this field, it's a whole different beast to do it with 10 men," noted head coach Yossi Raz after the match. "We didn't want to give up four goals, that's a good start. UC Santa Barbara's strength is in their offense. We wanted to make sure to minimize their good looks on frame which we did a pretty good job of early in the game."

The numbers seemed to favor the Anteaters (8-8-4, 6-1-2) on the stat sheet with five corners to UCSB's four and an even 11 shots for either side. Botterill made three stops in net with UCSB's Zeller stopping two. The Anteaters had reached their first Big West Final since 2014 and first for head coach Yossi Raz with UCSB finally defeating UCI in the final for the first time in their fourth try, and coach Raz and the team understood the challenge they posed going into the match and the threat they will be in the NCAA Tournament.

"I thought we controlled a lot of the elements we gameplanned for. Out of respect to Tim and his team, I'm not going to give up tactics because I don't want to give anything to their opponent in the NCAA Tournament. Whoever is going to compete against them needs to do work and prepare for a quality opponent and not make them vulnerable. I want them to go as far as they can and represent the Big West as well as possible."

Head Coach Yossi Raz's Thoughts on the 2021 Season
"The last 18 months were difficult for a lot of people in the world; we're just fortunate to align it with soccer. The reality is, there's a lot of things happening in the world, and like many, we're probably suffered a bit and affected our quality of play in the Big West. You can tell by our team going into the season. We needed to work hard to understand the fundamentals of what UC Irvine futbol is about and what each player's role on the field, our concept, and we were resilient and worked extremely hard through this whole time; not just since August, but in Zoom conversations to keeping shape on their own, it's not easy to do what these young men did over the last 18 months. I give them nothing but respect and credit, I love those young men in the locker room. I'm sad that this is how our last game looked. I'm sad for the seniors that this is the last echo, but if you take away tonight, I think looking back on their careers here at UC Irvine, they have a lot to be proud of. Not only the trophies they earned, but the quality of futbol we played, the type of people we're developing off the field, they're all leaving with amazing degrees from an amazing institution, and I have nothing but respect for everyone in that locker room and I'm so proud of them."

UCI's unbeaten streak of eight games ended Saturday night as they sit with an 8-8-4 record. The NCAA Tournament begins next week with the selection show Monday morning, November 15, at 10:00 a.m. PT.