UC Santa Barbara
Mustangs Host No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Saturday in Blue-Green Opener
9/25/2024 12:33:00 PM | Men's Soccer
NOTE: Gates for Saturday’s match with UC Santa Barbara will open at 1:30 p.m. The Cal Poly Athletics Department’s clear bag policy, already in use for football, will also be in effect Saturday.
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Having matched its lengthiest unbeaten run in three years, the Cal Poly men’s soccer program renews the Blue-Green rivalry with No. 13 UC Santa Barbara as the Mustangs host the Gauchos on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Mustang Memorial Field at Spanos Stadium. Kickoff on ESPN+ is 3 p.m. for Cal Poly (2-3-3), unbeaten in four straight and without a goal conceded in two previous home matches this year. UC Santa Barbara (6-1-1), however, has won four of its last six – including a 3-0 home win against Portland (Sept. 22) that jumped the Gauchos from No. 22 to 13 in the Sept. 24 edition of the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll. Cal Poly has conceded just four goals from open play this season (against four penalties) while UC Santa Barbara has allowed just five while ranking 18th among NCAA Division I programs with a Big West best 18 goals scored.
POINTS (NOT) ON OFFER: With the Big West’s current 10-team, single-table format and with each program playing the remaining nine sides just once (on a home-and-home basis, rotating each season), Saturday’s matchup will have no points available. The countable game in the Big West standings between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara this season occurs on Sunday, Oct. 6 in Santa Barbara.
CAL POLY VERSUS UC SANTA BARBARA: The Mustangs remain winless against the Gauchos for nine straight matches following a pair of UC Santa Barbara victories last season. Also winless in four successive home matches with UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly's last series victory was a 1-0 home triumph on Sept. 30, 2018. UC Santa Barbara leads the Division I series, 31-15-10.
CENTRAL COAST SERIES A TIGHTLY CONTESTED AFFAIR: Twenty-three of the last 31 matches between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have been decided by one goal or drawn. Seven of Cal Poly’s eight victories in the last 33 attempts against UC Santa Barbara have been a one-goal triumph. Just four times since 2007 has one side scored as many as three goals against the other (Cal Poly’s 4-1 home victory versus the Gauchos to close 2017 marked the first time since Nov. 9, 2001 that one team had slipped four goals past the other). The Mustangs are undefeated at home against the Gauchos in nine of the last 14 years while UC Santa Barbara has lost exactly once at home to Cal Poly in the last 24 matchups at Harder Stadium.
CAL POLY-UC SANTA BARBARA MATCHUP REMAINS THE CENTRAL COAST TOP SPORTING ATTRACTION: The best-attended sporting events annually in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, the Cal Poly-UC Santa Barbara series has drawn 30 of the top 69 regular season crowd figures in NCAA history with all matches occurring during the previous 16 seasons. The matchup at Mustang Memorial Field has sold out all 11,075 seats in 10 of the last 15 seasons. The 23 combined matches between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara during the last 11 years comprise 23 of the 31 highest attended collegiate soccer games in the United States – including NCAA Tournament and College Cup matches. Since the start of the 2007 season, 325,279 total spectators and an average of 9,567 fans per match have witnessed Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara clash on 34 occasions.
Rivalry week! Cal Poly hosts UC Santa Barbara in the opening leg of the 2024 Blue-Green rivalry series on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. on ESPN+.#RideHigh
— Cal Poly Men’s Soccer (@CPMensSoccer) September 23, 2024
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MAHONEY’S SCORING FORM: The Big West’s shot attempts leader (22), freshman midfielder Quinn Mahoney’s 10 attempts on target this season have yielded goals in each of Cal Poly’s last three matches to help fuel the program’s four-game unbeaten run. A redshirt during his first year on campus last season, Mahoney has also produced assists at Tulsa (Sept. 1) and during Cal Poly’s 3-0 home victory versus Gonzaga (Sept. 8).
OFFENSE IN FOCUS: After failing to find the back of the opposition net in the first three matches this season, Cal Poly has scored eight times in its last five outings. Ranked second among Big West programs with 102 shot attempts – just two behind leader UC Santa Barbara – Cal Poly has featured six different goalscorers already this season.
MCCUNE IN FRAME: Having conceded just once from open play during his previous 356 minutes, junior goalkeeper Nicky McCune enters Saturday’s match with UC Santa Barbara ranked third among Big West goalkeepers with a 1.01 goals against average and fourth with a .750 save percentage. Overall this season, McCune – the Sept. 9 Big West Defensive Player of the Week selection – has allowed just four goals from open play (the remaining four being penalties). With consecutive clean sheets in home victories against San Jose State (Sept. 5) and Gonzaga (Sept. 8), McCune produced a career best six saves to preserve the program’s 1-1 draw at Utah Tech.
UP NEXT (OCT. 2/6): The Mustangs open their 23rd season of Big West action where they ended the 2023 campaign: at UC Davis, which eliminated Cal Poly during the opening round of last year’s Big West Championship. Kickoff from Aggie Soccer Field is 3 p.m. for Cal Poly, which closes the opening week of Big West action at UC Santa Barbara – for points in the table – on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 4 p.m.
ETC.: Cal Poly is in its 30th Division I season and 23rd as a Big West member … Cal Poly was selected fifth in the Aug. 19 release of the Big West Preseason Coaches poll … Cal Poly’s 1-0 setback at Oral Roberts (Aug. 29) and 3-2 loss at Tulsa (Sept. 1) marked the program’s first all-time games in the state of Oklahoma … Cal Poly’s 1-1 draw at Utah Tech (Sept. 16) marked the program’s first all-time matchup against the Trailblazers.
