The No. 2-seeded Creighton men’s soccer team defeated an imposing No. 15-seeded University of California, Santa Barbara 2-1 in the third round of the NCAA Tournament at Morrison Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Bluejays scored twice in the first 20 minutes of the match, a feat that the Gauchos could not match in the 70 remaining minutes. The win gave Creighton its eighth ever NCAA quarterfinals appearance.
The Bluejays are now 13-0-0 at Morrison Stadium this season and 20-2-0 overall.
Creighton entered the contest ranked as the top defense in the country, while UC Santa Barbara had the third-best offense. It was the Bluejay offense, however, that was able to land the first blow.
In the eighth minute of the match, Creighton was awarded a corner kick. During the set piece, a Gaucho player was booked for grabbing senior forward Ethan Finlay in the box. Sophomore midfielder Bruno Castro stepped up and drilled the ensuing penalty into the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
“Of course, I was a little nervous,” Castro said. “I just went for it, I didn’t think much about it.”
Just 11 minutes later, another corner kick paid dividends for the Bluejays. Junior midfielder Jose Gomez sent the corner across the box to junior midfielder Greg Jordan. Jordan headed the ball to the front of the goal mouth where junior forward Andrew Ribeiro blasted a shot for his fourth goal of the season.
Creighton managed to keep the high-powered UC Santa Barbara offense in check throughout the first half of play. The Bluejays held on to the ball for much longer than the Gauchos, who did not have a shot on goal in the first 45 minutes.
UC Santa Barbara was finally able to break the Creighton defense in the 79th minute for a goal. Before that, Creighton had not allowed a goal since Oct. 15. It was only the second goal Creighton had allowed at home and only the fifth goal allowed by the Bluejays all year.
The final minutes of the match featured very open play. They also included two red cards for the Gauchos and a yellow card for Creighton’s freshman midfielder Jose Ribas.
Even though UC Santa Barbara entered the game with 50 goals scored on the season, they left with only two shots on goal. Senior goalkeeper Brian Holt did not record a save in the match, since Jordan knocked away the Gauchos’ only other shot on net.
Creighton has reached 20 wins for only the second time in the program’s history, with the only other time being the 2000 NCAA runner-up team. The Bluejays are in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008, when they lost to the University of Maryland in College Park.