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NCAA men's tournament Becerra, Davis send UCSB past SDSU 2-0 in first round.
UCSB (13-4-3), which won at least one tournament game the last four seasons and lost to Indiana in tie-breaking penalty kicks in the 2004 Division I title game, advanced to a Tuesday second-round game at No. 14 California State-Northridge, a conference foe and Big West champion. After playing a 2-2 tie in their first meeting, Northridge defeated visiting UCSB 1-0 on November 2. "I guess we'll be hoping that the third time's the charm," Gauchos senior midfielder Chris Hughes said. We know what they'll be bringing and they probably have an idea of what we'll be coming with so hopefully our hard work will pay off and I guess we'll see Tuesday." UCSB coach Tin Vom Steeg (100-37-10, 714) reached a milestone with his 100th collegiate coaching victory. "My problem with things like 100 wins or 50 wins or 75 is you always hear the stories of people getting stuck on 99 or whatever, so I was thinking I really want to get that 100 thing done this year and kind of move on," Vom Steeg said. "It's exciting -- I think you think less about 100 wins -- it's just 'Let's get ourselves in the playoffs and play well,' The wins always follow from that, but to get the 100th win in a playoff game is definitely a big thrill for me." The Gauchos and SDSU (9-4-6) battled through a physical first half. Aztecs junior goalkeeper Tally Hall, who finished the match with four saves, made two stellar stops in the first half to keep UCSB in check. Hall stopped point-blank shots by Davis and junior midfielder Eric Frimpong in the closing 20 minutes of a first half dominated by the Gauchos. "We knew going in that their goalkeeper was very good and would be tough to score on," Vom Steeg said. "We just know that as the game keeps going on, we're going to keep getting chances. We don't get discouraged, we don't get down, because someone's going to find something eventually as long as we stay solid in the back and keep moving the ball around. I'm very proud of the way we stayed with our game plan." The second half started much the same as the first ended with UCSB in the Aztecs end of the field. With 57:08, UCSB finally broke through for a 1-0 lead. Sophomore midfielder Tyler Rosenlund carried down the right side and found sophomore forward Andrew Proctor just above the center of the penalty area. Hall came off his line to cut the angle, but Proctor found Becerra streaking down the left side of the box. Becerra slipped the ball behind the off-balance Hall and shot inside the far post. "Well, I knew (Hall) was going to come out hard on me, so I just tried to push it by him," Becerra said. "And as soon as I did that, I just had to get the shot off. It would have been hard for me to take a shot with him in front of me, but luckily I just got by him and there was the open goal." SDSU was reduced to 10 men when junior forward Raul Bautista was ejected for his second yellow card at 74:30 and UCSB used the man advantage to make it 2-0 at 78:28. Rosenlund was near the center of the field at the top of the box. He slid a pass to the right to Davis who dribbled into the box and toward the end line. From an acute angle, he drilled a shot over Hall and into the near corner of the net. SDSU couldn't challenge after that and was reduced to nine players when freshman striker Kevin Werbner was sent off with a red card at 83:28. "At some point you have to score a goal and whoever does it first usually has an advantage," SDSU senior defender Matt Couch said. "We wanted to score one early in the game, but it just wasn't going to happen, so we just kept on fighting. Even when they had us 1-0, we still tried to maintain as many chances as we could. It just didn't happen for us today." Gauchos keeper Kyle Reynish needed three saves to record his ninth shutout of the season, the third most in UCSB history. Hall had four stops for the Aztecs. Brown 2, Rhode Island 1 (OT)
Brown (11-4-2) has defeated URI (13-8-2) in all three of the teams' postseason meetings and advanced to a Tuesday second-round game at nationally top-ranked Maryland (15-4-1). The Bears knocked URI out in the first round of the 1999 tournament 2-1 in overtime and won 3-1 in the 1977 tournament's first round. "This was a great day for Brown athletics," Brown coach Mike Noonan said. "Between us winning and the football team winning the Ivy title, you couldn't ask for anything more." Brown survived a scramble in front of its net in the opening minute of overtime, before Bears sophomore defender and co-captain Matt Britner settled his team down. "I just told them to stay calm and that our chances would come," Britner said. Two minutes later, Brown earned a corner kick on the other end. Junior midfielder Brian Joyce played the ball short to freshman midfielder Darren Howerton, who was stationed just outside the penalty area. His serve into the box found Brackett open and he headed the ball past URI senior keeper Dean Ruddy. "It was a play we set up in practice," Howerton said. "I got it on my right foot and played into a good area where Ben got a good piece on it." "It was a great chance and I just told myself to be patient and wait for it to come, and play the ball," Brackett said. The Rams took a 1-0 lead after 22:23 despite the Bears maintaining possession of the ball for much of the first half. Off a lead pass from sophomore midfielder Danliegh Borman, junior midfielder Jeffrey Gonsalves was able to force Brown freshman goalkeeper Jarrett Leech off his goal-line in an attempt to cut down the angle. Gonsalves triggered a low, slow rolling shot that just barely made it by a diving Leech and into the corner of the net. The Bears picked up their intensity even further as the second half progressed, aggressively trying to even the score. Senior Keith Caldwell drilled home his first goal of 2005 off a direct kick from 22 yards to make it 1-1 at 68:02. Rams reserve sophomore defender Steve Mellen was shown a red card for the foul that led to the free kick, leaving URI with 10 men for the duration. With its manpower shortage, URI focused on defense while the Bears relentlessly attacked, setting up play after play inside the Rams' box. Rhode Island's back-line held strong though, the remainder of regulation. "I am really proud of how our guys played today," said URI coach Ed Bradley. "They all really played their hearts out." No. 24 North Carolina-Greensboro 3, James Madison 2 GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Junior striker Randi Patterson scored twice and North Carolina-Greensboro survived a furious late rally to hold on for a 3-2 victory over James Madison in a first-round match at UNCG Soccer Stadium. Freshman forward Kurt Morsink found net twice for JMU in the closing 66 seconds, UNCG (16-5) will go to No. 19 Virginia Tech Tuesday for the second round, the Hokies being given the 12th of 16 seeds, all of whom received first-round byes. JMU (12-7-2) failed to give coach Tom Martin his 400th college coaching win, dropping his mark to 399-135-44 with a .728 winning percentage in 29 season in Harrisonburg, Va. UNCG coach Michael Parker is fourth among active Division I men's coach in victories with a 451-154-23 (.736) mark in 30 seasons. JMU held a 7-1 advantage in shots in the first half, but arrived at intermission scoreless. Then UNCG, the Southern Conference champion, took the lead at 50:12. Scott Jones hit a right-side corner kick into the middle of the box where fellow junior midfielder Mike Richardson jumped in front of teammate Jamie Carlson, a senior defender whose height drew a lot of attention, and headed home his third goal of the season for a 1-0 advantage. A Jones corner kick had a part in sending the Spartans ahead 2-0 at 66:15. Jones hit the ball this time from the left corner and Patterson was there to head it in from six yards, Forty-nine seconds later, Patterson struck again. Freshman forward Henning Jonason hit a ball from the midfield stripe deep into JMU territory. Patterson chased it down, made a move and flicked his shot over JMU goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Leaping over Trapp, Patterson chased down the loose ball and tapped it inside the left post to make it 3-0. Patterson has 18 goals this season and 48 for his career. With five assists, he has 43 points this season, the fourth Spartan to record 40 points in consecutive seasons, With 1:06 remaining, Morsink hooked a free kick from 20 yards past keeper Jay Benfield and into the top left corner, narrowing their deficit to 3-1. Forty-five seconds later, Morsink scored again, chipping a shot over Benfield's head and just under the crossbar for a 3-2 score with 21 seconds left. JMU held a 17-11 advantage in shots for the game with Benfield making seven saves for the Spartans and Trapp making three for JMU. |
