Gauchos pull out of playoff hunt after ref assault
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Oct 29, 2012
[UC SANTA BARBARA] UC Santa Barbara has pulled its men's soccer team out of postseason contention after defender Peter
McGlynn was handcuffed and taken away when he assaulted referee Reed Christy following the Gauchos' 2-1 loss to UC Davis for their third straight
overtime loss.
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mark W. Massari announced Monday that McGlynn had been removed from the team, head coach Tim Vom Steeg has been suspended for the next game at Sacramento State and UCSB will will forego any opportunity for postseason play this season.
According reports from those at the game, UCSB was upset with Christy's decision not to whistle a foul on goalie Austin Mansker before Matt Sheldon scored the golden goal. McGlynn, who had earlier in overtime been issued his second yellow card of the game, shoved Christy from behind and the referee fell to the
ground.
According to KEYT-TV, McGlynn was released without being
charged.
UCSB began the 2012 season with a 12-game inbeaten streak (9-0-3) but is 1-5-0 since then to fall to 9-5-3.
This wasn't the first time UCSB has been involved in a
messy postgame incident.
The NCAA handed suspension to three UCSB players Michael Tetteh, Danny Barrera and
Machael David and a public reprimand to Vom Steeg for their actions after UCSB's controversial 2-1 loss to Cal in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
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Not surprising. Everytime I watch a game on TV from UCSB, I am amazed that the referee allows the game to continue with tortillas, bottles, and crap being flung onto the field. If I was the ref, the stands would be cleared before the game continued after anything is thrown onto the field.
The guy just cost his fellow seniors and teammates a chance at postseason play. I applaud the UCSB AD for taking the action that he did. The coach needs some counseling as well.
This is rampant in society, usually a handful of people ruin things for all! Everyone needs to have skin in the game, and from top down, there should be consequences! I applaud the decision to forego post-season play as a means of conveying how the behaviors exhibited, will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, it seems the only way to get groups/individuals to police themselves, is to penalize them hard to get there attention! I've had some uncomfortably heated games on both sides of the touchline, and just hope someone will have my back both to keep me safe on the field, and administratively from those in charge.