SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Opening its 2021 home slate against a Taft side that had won all four of its previous games, the SBCC men's soccer team played to a draw for the second time in four days, 1-1.
The Vaqueros are now 1-0-2 while Taft's record moves to 4-0-1.
"It was great to be back playing on the new turf field under the lights after nearly two years," said head coach John Sisterson. "We opened brightly and a great corner by Paolo Carrillo-Weisenberger found Juan Zarate connecting to send in a powerful header into the back of the net to make it 1-0 in the second minute."
Carrillo-Weisenberger recorded his team-leading second assist of the year with the corner. It was the fastest goal to open a half in the last 16 games for the Vaqueros dating back to Oct. 1, 2019 against Chaffey.
Both teams looked to push forward throughout a competitive first half in an open end-to-end game, but the score remained 1-0 heading into halftime.
"In the second half, we defended well until a moment of individual skill saw Taft tie the game up with an unstoppable curling shot into the top corner," Sisterson said. "We then had a very good spell where we moved the ball around well, creating a number of opportunities. The best chance came when Paolo Carrillo had the goalkeeper beaten from 25-yards out only to see it hit the post and rebound into play."
That was one of 16 shot attempts for Santa Barbara on the day. Goalkeeper Sunny Dhaliwal finished with three saves.
"A competitive game against a team that had won its last four games," Sisterson said. "We're all looking forward to Friday's home game."
The Vaqueros play their second of a three-game home stand this Friday at 7:00 p.m. against Citrus.
