SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- UC Irvine men's soccer scored another Big West point in a dead-even 0-0 draw Saturday night at Harder Stadium against UC Santa Barbara.
UC IRVINE 0, UC SANTA BARBARA 0
- A match that was truly played between the boxes with both sides matching each other with nine shots, two shots on target, three corners, one offside, and no goals apiece. The only discrepancy was 10 UCSB fouls to UCI's nine and one caution dealt to UC Santa Barbara
- The first half was a little more skewed toward the hosts with five of the eight shots and both corners. A flurry of blocked shots in the 28th minute was the biggest threat against either side that the Anteater defense defended.
- UC Irvine had its best chances in the second half with multiple odd-man rushes. Mario Anaya wound up from well outside the box on a twisting shot that needed a diving save in the 56th minute
- Christian Gomez had two near-misses in the second half with the closest anyone came to scoring in the 51st minute as a corner was cleared out to Oscar Cervantes whose service found Gomez at the back post, but his header hit off the crossbar. He had another chance in the 60th minute again all alone on the far post, but the UCSB keeper recovered to deny him.
- The match ends scoreless in a draw, the seventh time in the last eight meetings the teams end regulation level
- Luke Pruter has still yet to allow a goal in Big West play sporting back-to-back shutouts for the second time of his career. It's his fifth clean sheet of the season, ninth in his career, and he adds on two saves for 119 as an Anteater
- UCI held its opponent to under 10 shots, now the case in nine of 10 matches this year
- The 'Eaters stayed off the caution sheet for the first time this season
- The Gauchos have yet to score in conference play; prior to tonight every UCSB match had see a minimum of two goals between the sides
Thoughts from head coach
Yossi Raz: "I thought we played a mature game against a quality team in a tough stadium. We defended well throughout the game and grew into the game offensively nicely. We will take the point and move on to prepare for a quality Cal State Bakersfield team at another challenging away field. I'm proud of our squad and enjoy our journey together."
UCI goes up to four points on the week and in two Big West match at 1-0-1, 4-3-3 overall. UCSB was issued their first draw, now 5-5-1 and three points behind UCI in conference, 0-1-1.
Next up for the Anteaters are a midday, midweek matchup heading to Cal State Bakersfield, October 4, with kickoff at 11:00 a.m. UC Irvine finishes next week in Anteater Stadium hosting UC Davis on October 7
