Sept. 23, 2006

Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. - UC Davis posted its third consecutive victory in knocking off No. 12 UC Santa Barbara, 1-0, Saturday afternoon at Aggie Soccer Stadium. Sule Anibaba scored the game's only goal when he connected in the 19th minute. Charles Warne had four saves with his final stop coming as time expired. The win improves UC Davis to 5-4-0 on the year while UCSB drops to 5-3-0. The Gauchos entered the contest ranked in the top-25 in three national polls.

Anibaba's goal was set up by a feed from Nicholas Lind from about 15 yards out which allowed Anibaba to blast it in the left side of the net. The goal was the first of the season for sophomore and only the fifth allowed by the Gauchos all season.

The remainder of the game was a defensive battle for the Aggies as UCSB put consistent pressure on the hosts throughout the second half. Warne's heroics in goal included stopping a breakaway shot from Eric Frimpong from 10 yards out in the 74th minute. The final save came as the horn sounded when Warne tipped a shot from Bryan Byrne over the crossbar to clinch the victory.

"The big difference was that we scored first," said UC Davis head coach Dwayne Shaffer. "We scored a nice goal and Santa Barbara changed a few things tactically. They're an outstanding team and it was on our side today. I think we played hard. Both teams played hard. We just came out on top at the end of this one today."

The win came against a UCSB team ranked No. 12 in the latest College Soccer News Top-25 poll. The Gauchos are No. 14 in the SoccerTimes.com poll and No. 25 in the NSCAA/adidas Top-25. The victory was just UC Davis' third in 13 meetings all-time with UC Santa Barbara.

"It's a huge victory for us," added Shaffer. "It proves to our guys that they can play with everybody in the country."

The Aggies have posted five shutouts on the year and have blanked future Big West Conference opponents Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and UCSB in their last three games.

"I feel like our back four has played really well the last couple of games, " said Shaffer. "We worked on our team defense for the last two weeks. They all did an outstanding job today, and Charles made a huge save right at the end. I've never seen anything like that in all of my days of soccer."

In all, the Gauchos fired 11 shots compared to the Aggies' seven.

UC Davis will next head south when it takes on UC Riverside Sept. 29 before completing the road trip at Cal State Northridge two days later.