Vaquero defense too much for Bulldogs
Kenny Cress - Times Sports Writer
The adage "a good defense beats a good offense" held true Friday.
The Hancock College men's soccer team found Santa Barbara City's defense just about impenetrable nearly throughout, and the Vaqueros' two goals were more than enough to hand the Bulldogs a 2-0 loss in a Western State Conference showdown at Hancock.
Santa Barbara, 7-2-6 overall, took over first place in the WSC at 2-0-1. The Vaqueros have won or tied their last 11 games. Hancock, the defending WSC champion, dropped to 2-1 in conference games and 8-4-3 overall. The Vaqueros came into the game tied for fifth in the Southern California rankings with Rio Hondo. Hancock was rated 11th.
"They're solid defensively—we knew they would be," Hancock coach Al Garcia said. Overall, however, "If that's all they've got, I'm not impressed. They didn't show me anything offensively. They tied the best team in the state, Santa Ana, but we didn't play anything near our best today."
The Vaqueros played well enough to stymie the Bulldogs' attack almost throughout. In particular, Santa Barbara defender Robert Velasquez effectively shadowed Bulldog forward Isaac Torres. Torres has 19 goals this year, but he couldn't even get off a shot Friday.
"(Velasquez) did a good job on Isaac," Garcia said. "We're not a one-man team, but they did a good job marking him all game."
"Robert knows (Torres) from high school," said Santa Barbara coach Cam Camerena. "Robert played against him four years when Robert played at Templeton and (Torres) played against him at Coast Union. From what I heard, he shut him down there too. He did a good job against him. Torres is dangerous."
Speaking of shutting a player—or players—down, Kyle Beattie and Kris Colt sparked a Hancock defense that shut down Santa Barbara most of the game. But in the fourth minute, C.J. Shaffer got behind the Bulldogs defense, took Ivan Vargas' long pass, and beat Bulldogs goalkeeper Jason Hancock for the first goal.
The score stood 1-0 at halftime. Then, in the 84th minute, Omar Rueff broke free near the Bulldogs goal and booted the ball past Hancock for the last goal.
"They got a cheap goal on that one," Garcia said. "We were trying to push up more, get more offense, and that's what happens sometimes. That's okay."
On Santa Barbara's first goal, "Our communication broke down," Garcia said. "After that, our communication was OK, but we didn't get a total team effort today. Some people didn't want it as much as others did."
Both goalies were solid, but the defenses were so dominant that neither one had to make many saves. Hancock made six saves and Vaqueros goalie Jose Perez made five. Perez did have to come out once to knock away a shot early in the second half, but the Bulldogs couldn't get the rebound, and Perez grabbed the ball.
Hancock didn't get another decent scoring opportunity until the last three minutes of the game. Juan Ayala worked himself open from 25 yards out from the goal straightaway, but he knocked the ball several feet over the top crossbar. In the last minute, Bulldogs sweeper Billy Barbaree, a place kicker for the Hancock football team who gave the Bulldogs some good long-distance kicks deep into Santa Barbara territory Friday, bounced one over Perez's head from about 40 yards out. The ball hit the top crossbar and bounced away.
Santa Barbara was hit with six yellow cards during the physical game, and the Bulldogs were assessed two. At times, Camerena and the Vaqueros players were vocal in their displeasure at calls that were made.
"That's just the way Cam has them play—that dirty, complaining type of game," Garcia said. "We knew they were going to be real physical."
The Bulldogs play at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Glendale.
"That won't be easy," said Garcia. "Glendale's real tough."