All good streaks must come to an end.

For the second straight year, the LMU Tigers handed the #7 Gauchos their first loss of the season. The loss brings to a halt the 14-game regular season win streak. Errant shooting, unlucky bounces and a suspect call plagued Santa Barbara as the LMU Tigers pulled off a 1-0 upset last night at Harder Stadium.

The outcome of the game became secondary in the final minutes when senior midfielder David McGill went down hard and had to be taken off in a stretcher. The game was delayed for several minutes while an ambulance was escorted to the field.

“He wasn’t moving, so it doesn’t look good. We can only hope that he’ll be all right. I really can’t say much more about it,” Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg said.

An insult to the injury occurred briefly after McGill’s injury, when it appeared that the Gauchos had tied the game on a senior forward Neil Jones rebound. But the goal was taken away by the line judge who called Jones offside. Jones proceeded to sprint to the line judge to argue the call, but to no avail.

“I looked at the tape after the game and I was off sides. It was a good call,” Jones said. “My man slipped up to contend [junior forward] Matt Bly, who shot the ball, and when Matt shot it I was about half a yard past my man.”

The call caused an uproar from the Gaucho faithful as well as from the UCSB players. The two teams are not new to such controversy.

The game was a rematch of last year’s 1-0 LMU victory, which saw then-junior midfielder Memo Arzate ejected for allegedly punching an LMU player. The ejection forced the Gauchos to play a man down, giving LMU the upper hand and enough momentum to beat the then-undefeated Gauchos.

The loss was heartbreaking for the Gauchos, but all thoughts were on McGill after the game.

“I went over there when it happened and it didn’t look good, to be honest,” Jones said. “We’re headed over to the hospital right now to see how he is, so hopefully he’s OK.”

UCSB’s efforts to avenge last year’s loss were extreme but futile. The Gauchos dominated in shots on goal and time of possession, but couldn’t capitalize.

“[The loss] certainly wasn’t for a lack of opportunities,” Vom Steeg said. “We had plenty of chances, but we just couldn’t finish.”

In the third minute of the game, senior Arzate missed wide left from point blank range. Six minutes later, senior midfielder Matt Kubota shook off two defenders but was subsequently impeded by LMU keeper Shaun Kalnasy from the top of the box. Then, in the 13th minute, junior forward Drew McAthy scorched a shot with his left by Kalnasy only to hit plush against the crossbar.

The lone goal of the game came on a grounded header that bounced underneath UCSB junior goalkeeper Danny Kennedy in the 58th minute. LMU forward Joe Stoakley serviced the ball to forward Sean Rhynard, who flicked it up for Kevin Novak to head in.

The goal was the first Kennedy had allowed in over 450 minutes of game time.

“This was a very well-fought game and it could have gone either way, but the ball just decided to bounce our way tonight,” LMU Head Coach Paul Krump said. “This win is gigantic. To stop the streak here is huge for our program.”

Santa Barbara now sits at 7-1-1 while LMU improves to 7-3-1.