SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Junior
Sean Battistessa's fourth goal of the year in the 59th minute brought the Hornets level and both teams battled through playing a man down for the final 10 minutes on Wednesday night as visiting Sacramento State battled UC Santa Barbara to a 1-1 draw in The Big West opener for both sides at Harder Stadium.
Now unbeaten in their last three matches, the Hornets picked up their first draw of the season and moved to 3-5-1 overall and 0-0-1 in league play. The Gauchos, who had lost their last two matches coming in, moved to 4-3-3 overall and 0-0-1 in conference.
For Sacramento State, Wednesday's result marked only the fifth time that the Hornets had earned a point in 17 all-time matches against UCSB on its home field and was the first result against the Gauchos on the road since a scoreless draw in 2017.
The two teams played through a scoreless 32 minutes before the Hornets were whistled for a foul in the box as Steinar Bjornsson was taken down by a Sacramento State defender and awarded a penalty. Bjornsson then slotted home the attempt to the lower right side for the 1-0 lead.
It stayed that way through the break and into the second half when the Hornets came through with the tying score. Reigning Big West Rookie of the Week
Adrian Alvarenga played a perfect ball down the right side for
Zac Giles, who took a touch around his defender and found space heading into the box.
There, he spotted teammate
Sean Battistessa making a run at the back post and skidded a perfectly placed pass into the six-yard box where Battistessa slid it home off his left foot at the back post to knot the match at one apiece.
For Giles, it was his fifth assist of the season and the 11th of his career, moving him into a five-way tie for eighth on the school's all-time list. He now has points in six of the team's nine matches. Meanwhile, Battistessa moved into a tie with Giles for the team lead in goals with four, collecting the 10th goal of his career in the green and gold.
Alvarenga, who was also credited with an assist on the goal, tallied the first point of his collegiate career.
From that point, the Hornets had to withstand a barrage of attempts by the Gauchos' offense, which took eight of the next nine shots pressing for the go-ahead.
That pressure led to a foul in the 78th minute as Sacramento State had a player sent off after review with a red card, putting the Hornets down a man for the final 13 minutes. Three minutes later, things were evened up as a Gaucho player was also sent off following a hard foul against a Sacramento State defender, making it a 10-v-10 match up for the final 10 minutes.
UCSB finished with four corners and two shot attempts in that span, but the Hornets' defense stood tall, successfully defending the four set pieces as both shots sailed off target.
The Gauchos finished with a 23-11 shot advantage, putting 10 of their attempts on frame to five for Sacramento State, while senior goalkeeper
Lucas Bost finished with a career-high eight saves.
The Hornets come home for their next Big West match on Saturday (Oct. 3) at 4 p.m., welcoming Cal State Bakersfield to Northern California.
