Anyone who got to the game four minutes late on Friday night missed a couple of important goals from the UCSB women’s soccer team in its 2-1 win.

A minute and a half into the game, the Gauchos (6-6 overall) were on the board against Davis (3-5-2 overall) after a shot from sophomore defender Romy Barber was taken from the top the 18-yard box and caught the goalie by surprise. Almost exactly two minutes later, freshman midfielder Linda Allen found the back of Davis’ net for the second Gaucho goal of the game from similar distance.

Although much of the crowd had yet to arrive, those of the 272 in attendance who were punctual gave witness to the exciting beginning of Friday’s game. Junior forward and team co-captain Allie Kueny did her part to ignite the offense by supplying both assists.

“We were just passing the ball around, moving it around really well, keeping the ball on the ground and switching the point of attack,” Kueny said.

This game seemed to have all the makings of a blow out in the early going with Santa Barbara anxious to break out of a three-game slide and make a statement at home against its new Division I counterparts the Aggies.

Yet, after scoring off the first two shot attempts produced by the Gaucho offense on the night, the mood of the game saw a dramatic shift from the electric first five minutes to a much less inspired ambience.

“After the first five minutes, I think we got a little overconfident after we went up two goals,” Kueny said. “From there the game just turned into more of a kickball game [which allowed] Davis [to gain] a little bit of momentum.”

By the numbers, Davis would go on to outshoot the Gauchos by a mark of 13 to five en route to producing both an impressive header goal in the latter minutes of the match and a penalty kick opportunity.

Seventy minutes into the game, Davis senior midfielder Kristin Aja was slammed in the top corner of the penalty area and the referee hardly hesitated to make the call. With the two-goal advantage, senior goalkeeper and team co-captain Jamie Considine exhibited superb reaction time as she dove to her left to save the goal.

“[It was a] dumb foul on top of the box [and that led to a] penalty kick,” UCSB Head Coach Paul Stumpf said. “The girl has the ball coming toward her head 18 yards out and we hammer her – there is no chance she is going to score on that, but then we put them 12 yards out in front of the goal with just a goalkeeper. To me that was more indicative; it was the poor decision-making [on whole for the night] that was the difference for me.”

While the penalty kick save by Considine didn’t seem like the decisive moment in the game, it may well have been.

After nearly 90 minutes of tenacious work by the up-and-coming Aggies had proven fruitless, freshman defender Danielle Contro headed home a lead-devastating goal off of senior midfielder Sita Kuteira’s corner kick.

Although the late goal in the 82nd minute would prove to be too little, too late for Davis, it would have been a different game without Considine’s save in the clutch.

“We talk a lot here about bottom lines and the bottom line is that we have to win games,” Stumpf said. “If its ugly and we win, then we still took care of the bottom line.”

After four games in one week, Stumpf gave the team both Saturday and Sunday off to help refresh his fatigued squad.

“They need to recharge their batteries, get away from soccer for a little bit, to get ahead in their studies and they need to have a little bit of fun,” Stumpf said. “However, come Monday we’ve got to refocus. I don’t think some of the new kids understand that the intensity is now going to raise a notch; it’s going to get tougher.”