Santa Barbara High boys soccer defended home turf and secured a 2-1 victory over Carpinteria High in their season opener on Friday at Peabody Stadium.
The young Dons squad that returns just two starters from last year used a strong defensive effort and two first-half goals to earn the season-opening win.
"It is very important to get off on a good note, especially this year's team because we are super young," Santa Barbara High coach Ricardo Alcaraz said. "We had only two seniors starting today, we eventually had three freshmen playing and we had about five sophomores at one point.
"It was really important to get a win at home in front of their families... The kids are excited and they're happy."
The game got off to a slow start, as both offenses struggled to find their grooves while the back lines of both squads stepped up.
In fact, the first 30 minutes of play went scoreless as the two defenses continued to clear out any threats made by the opposing attackers.
The Warriors were more aggressive in the middle of the first, resulting in the first major test of the night in the 27th minute when Alex Ramirez made his way into the box with his defender on his hip.
However, Santa Barbara goalie Ian Zampelli came out of the net and jumped on the ball to neutralize the threat.
The Dons' offense then hit its stride, opening up the scoring in the 33rd minute of the 40-minute first half.
Juan Pablo Montes got the ball near midfield and left his defender in the dust down the left sideline. He then crossed the ball into the box, where Barbaro Cadena was waiting and slotted the ball past a sliding Drew Filippini into the bottom left corner for the 1-0 lead.
That score sparked Santa Barbara High, as it doubled its lead less than two minutes later.
After the ball rattled around in the Carpinteria penalty box, Filippini seemingly cleared the ball out. However, it flew straight into Santa Barbara's Damian Leon, who ricocheted the ball back into the box.
There, Bryan Barreto flipped around, found the ball and scored past the outstretched hands of Filippini to give the Dons a 2-0 lead.
"Bryan Berreto was fresh for the last 10 minutes of the first half and I told him 'We're going to be more direct toward you, just make sure you get your foot on anything. Don't think twice. He was able to get in on both goals."
That lead held into halftime thanks in part to a pair of big plays by Zampelli, who came away with a jump save on a Carpinteria free kick just outside the box and secured another sliding stop on the right side of the box.
"It was [Zampelli's] first game as a varsity player and he came up big in the first half," Alcaraz said. "If it wasn't for him we probably would be down 2-0. He had a great game, I'm really proud of him and I hope he's really happy."
The beginning of the second half mirrored the start of the game, as neither offense could muster up much momentum before the final 25 minutes of play.
However, the Warriors then found some success and had the ball in the attacking third often. In fact, Carpinteria found the back of the net off a free kick in the 58th minute before it was waved off due to an offsides call.
The Warriors continued to apply pressure on the Santa Barbara High defense throughout the half before they finally broke through, as Peter Campuzano found the ball at his feet in the penalty box and fired a shot past the sliding Zampelli to cut the deficit down to 2-1 with 7:23 left to play.
Carpinteria made a few final pushes at the equalizer, but the Dons' backline continued to turn them away until the final whistle sounded to finish off the 2-1 victory.
"We've been working a lot these past three days with our back four because we only have one returning from the defense last year," Alcaraz said. "They worked really hard on all the points of closing down space, keeping it simple and not doing anything dangerous around the back.
"I'm really proud of our freshman Ivan Jilote and new player Owen Schiller, they played really well today in their first game."
The Dons (1-0) will be on the road on Monday against Lompoc at 3:30 p.m. while the Warriors (0-2) face off against Dos Pueblos on Tuesday, Dec. 3.