Originally Published October 2, 2006

The CSUN men’s soccer team continued to make Matador Soccer Field the house of horrors for Big West Conference nemesis UC Santa Barbara on Sept. 27.

The Matadors jumped on the Gauchos early and often. The Matadors scored three goals in the first half and refused to let up, attempting 16 shots on goal in the second half. They managed to tack on two more goals inside the final 10 minutes of the game as CSUN dealt 19th-ranked UCSB its fifth straight loss and sixth in eight seasons at CSUN with a convincing 5-0 rout.

“We made the decision that we’re going to take it one game at a time,” head coach Terry Davila said. “We’re going to put ourselves on the line and go for it.”

The game also had more than its fair share of physical play. The Matadors and Gauchos combined to commit a whopping 39 fouls and also drew 16 card warnings, four of which went from yellow to red, resulting in four ejections, three from UCSB and one from CSUN. The physical play resulted in a brief scuffle that resulted in the ejection of UCSB’s third player.

It took CSUN 13 minutes to get on the board. A Santa Barbara penalty set up a free kick at the right side of Gaucho territory. Defender Sean Franklin sent the ball into the Gaucho box, where midfielder Adrian Lopez received the ball and quickly sent the ball toward defender Matt Tracy, who guided a header successfully past Gaucho goalkeeper Kyle Reynish into the left side of the net, giving CSUN the early lead.

“It was a beautiful set piece,” Davila said. “The second one was a beautiful set piece too by Devin.”

Midfielder Devin Deldo’s beautiful set piece came when he received a pass from defender Derek Hanks and charged in on the box, but as Deldo approached the box, he was pushed down from behind by Kyle Keveny. Keveny was given a yellow-card warning and CSUN was given another free kick. Deldo took the free kick at the left side of the goal and sent a bender into the net without any interference from Reynish.

“At the time, I was thinking I’m going to take the clearest option the goalie’s giving me,” Deldo said.

The physical part of the game soon started to develop. Two minutes after Deldo’s goal, Keveny was ejected when he attempted a slide tackle in order to deflect the ball away from midfielder Taylor Canel at near mid-field. Keveny, however, took down Canel viciously, which led to Keveny’s second yellow card, which then equated into a red card and an automatic ejection. UCSB’s Greg Curry and David Walker also received yellow cards for vehemently arguing the call.

Keveny’s ejection forced the Gauchos to play with only 10 players as opposed to 11 for the Matadors, but that advantage lasted only four minutes, as midfielder Dylan Riley was ejected in the 25th minute after attempting what looked to be a clean slide tackle, a tackle in which he actually got most of the ball, but also took down a Gaucho.

Riley’s ejection evened the man advantage, but that too did not last long, as Curry was ejected in the 31st minute for committing a hard foul. Then in the 41st minute, Moy Gomez received a pass from forward Ryan Rossi, raced past the Gaucho defense and quickly toward the Gaucho box. Gomez got inside the box, and tried to get a shot off, but while Reynish made a sliding save, he also tackled Gomez hard, which got him a yellow card, and since the foul was committed inside the box, the Matadors were awarded a penalty kick, which was taken by Rossi, as he converted successfully, sending a low, straight shot past Reynish at the left side.

In the second half, CSUN was even more aggressive on offense, but didn’t get its next goal until the 82nd minute. CSUN stopped Gaucho defender Andy Iro on a shot attempt dangerously close to the Matador goal and shortly after, Canel got the ball at near midfield and sent a pass to midfielder Fergie Agwu at the left side of Gaucho territory. Agwu made his move toward the goal, but was met by two defenders. Agwu quickly gave the ball up to an open Gomez, who ran in on the box and sent the ball past Reynish and into the net for a 4-0 Matador lead.

Tensions nearly boiled over between the two teams with just under a minute left in the game. Ben Cox chased down a loose ball that eventually went out of bounds. Cox still chased it all the way past the box and once it went out, he started exchanging words with Reynish. Tempers started to flare and the refs and players from both teams quickly ran in to try and separate the two players. Cox then exchanged words and shoves with Evan Patterson and when order was finally restored and things were sorted out, Patterson was ejected and Cox was given a yellow card.

CSUN got the final word, though, with time expiring and UCSB down to eight players. Michael Clegg made a run at the Gaucho box with less than 20 seconds left. Clegg fired a shot, but was denied by Reynish. The ball, however, came back to another forward, Sunghyun Kim, who waited patiently before firing a shot that beat Reynish to the right net to finish off a wild afternoon.

“It’s a good win for us, good confidence builder,” defender Sean Franklin said.

Goalkeeper Kevin Guppy again came up big in goal, recording six saves in 87 minutes of play while Reynish had eight. Kim recorded a team-high six shots on goal while Gomez had three.

When asked about playing in the CSUN-UCSB rivalry for the very first time, Kim simply said “I was nervous before I played.”

CSUN (3-3-3, 1-0-2) tried to avoid a letdown yesterday, hosting the UC Davis Aggies, a team that had beaten the Gauchos Sept. 23.