SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Gonzaga men's soccer posted a goal in the 86^th minute to pull within one, but wasn't able to come through in a 2-1 loss at UC Santa Barbara.
 
Freshman Demitrius Kigeya kept his scoring touch with his team-leading fourth goal of the season late in the game, but the 2-0 deficit the Zags (2-6-2) faced was too much.
 
"Obviously not the result we wanted or expected, and we still need to play at our standard for the entire 90 minutes," head coach Paul Meehan said. "We surrendered a couple goals that we had no business giving up, a few moments in the game we'd like back. But, a lot of good was done on the field, where we created several good chances early. Credit a very good UCSB team for a hard fought win. We return home a better team than we left, we'll continue to build and I'm certain our best games are ahead of us."
 
The Gauchos (6-3-0) got off to a hot start in the first half scoring on a penalty kick by Rodney Michael, followed by a second goal off a corner kick that was scored by Faouzi Taieb.
 
Then in the 86^th minute, GU's Kigeya got free from the left side of the box and placed a shot in the bottom left corner of the goal to cut the lead to 2-1. But with just over four minutes remaining, Gonzaga was unable to post the tying goal.
 
Ben Willis made four saves in net for GU, including three in a second half in which the Zags shut out the Gauchos.
 
Gonzaga will be back on the pitch at home on Oct. 6 when it opens West Coast Conference play with the University of Portland at 7 p.m. Live coverage will be available at GoZags.com.