A two-goal burst in each half helped No. 18 SBCC to a 4-3 men's soccer upset of No. 14 Chaffey on Tuesday afternoon at La Playa Stadium.
The Vaqueros (6-1-1) won their fourth straight while Chaffey fell to 7-3-1.
Santa Barbara struck early with two goals in the first 5:38. Roni Spektor, a freshman defender from Israel, made a clever back head flick off a corner from Adam Chenoweth for a 1-0 lead just 63 seconds into the contest. At the 5:38 mark, Christopher Robinson took a pass from Jonas Romero and beat the keeper to the right.
The Vaqueros outshot the Panthers 8-4 in the first half and led 2-0.
"We were able to get two goals in short bursts a couple of times today but then we went on to make a lot of mistakes," said Robinson, a freshman forward from Umea, Sweden. "The important thing is what's up there on the scoreboard.
"I got a great pass from Jonas and it made for an easy goal. It's always nice to put a lot in the net."
Chaffey got on the board at 61:05 when Marco Rodriguez scored from 20 yards out.
The Vaqueros responded with two goals in just over four minutes. Robinson was tripped while racing through the box and Saul Sosa drove the PK into the lower right at 65:50. Just 4:05 later, Fernando Ochoa fed Robinson and he tallied his second goal from 17 yards to make it 4-1.
Robinson leads the Vaqueros with five goals.
Chaffey outshot the Vaqueros 16-15, including 8-7 in shots on goal.
Rodriguez made things interesting by scoring a hat trick with two goals in the last eight minutes. He scored at 81:50 on an assist from Daniel Alvarado and then converted a 36-yard free kick on a defensive error.
"We got a little nervous after going up 4-1," said coach John Sisterson. "We were comfortable going forward and I thought we might get a fifth one. Then all of a sudden, we let one in and we coughed up another. We didn't batten down the hatches very tight.
"This was a good result against a competitive team but it shouldn't have been 4-3. Roni scored a great first goal and Chris scored two good goals and helped create our third. Chris has been a thorn in everybody's side this year. He's so quick and has a great change of pace and change of direction."
Sisterson was impressed by the play of midfielders Luiz Garcia and Saul Sosa, along with forward Hans Nordin, who entered the game in the 27th minute.
The Vaqueros will play their final non-conference game on Tuesday when Citrus visits La Playa at 7 p.m.