Oct. 5, 2005
Fullerton, CA - Ivan Becerra scored a pair of goals as UC Santa Barbara blanked host Cal State Fullerton, 4-0, Wednesday night in Big West Conference men's soccer action. The win improved the Gauchos' record to 6-2-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 in the Big West. The Titans lost their conference opener and fell to 2-6-1 overall.
UCSB outshot the Titans, 17-7, and goalkeeper Kyle Reynish had to make only one save to log the shutout.
Becerra scored in the eighth minute when the Titans got sloppy with an inbounds throw. Eric Avila stole the ball less than 10 yards from the end line and fed Becerra, who beat a helpless Bobby Armstrong for a 1-0 lead.
The Gauchos worked harder for their second goal in the 26th minute. Jeff Murphy headed a corner kick from Bryan Byrne off the near post and Andy Iro kicked in the rebound for a 2-0 lead that became the halftime score.
Becerra made a nice volley of a cross from Iro to make it 3-0 in the 66th minute for his eighth goal of the season and Eric Frimpong got his first goal of the year off a nice feed from Nick Perera for the final tally in the 85th minute.
Cal State Fullerton hosts UC Irvine Saturday night in another Big West match while the Gauchos host Cal State Northridge in an early battle for first place between the league's top two teams of 2004.