UC Santa Barbara
Mustangs Visit UC Santa Barbara Saturday to Close 2026 Blue-Green Rivalry Series
10/8/2026 3:57:00 PM | Men's Soccer
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Taking a break from Pac-12 Conference play, the Cal Poly men’s soccer program pursues its second unbeaten season against UC Santa Barbara in a three-year span as the Mustangs renew the Blue-Green rivalry on Saturday, Oct. 10.
Kickoff from UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium is 7 p.m. on ESPN+ for Cal Poly, which captured the Sept. 25 series opener at home (right) as goals from juniors Charlie Hogan (70’) and Devin Bening (87’, bottom right) secured a dramatic 2-1, come-from-behind victory. The decision marked Cal Poly’s first rivalry win since 2024.
Cal Poly (4-3-5, 0-1-2) enters the matchup tied for fourth in the Pac-12 standings following a 1-1 Wednesday draw at San Diego State. UC Santa Barbara (5-3-4, 1-0-2), meanwhile, sits second in the Big West table and just a point behind co-leaders Utah Valley and UC Irvine.
With Cal Poly’s offseason conference transition from the Big West, neither of this year’s matches will count for points in a conference table – a first in the 19-year history of the Blue-Green rivalry.
While Cal Poly is undefeated at home versus UC Santa Barbara in 11 of the previous 16 matchups, the Mustangs have won just once at Harder Stadium in the past 26 years and 27 games. That historic win was a 2-1, overtime, come-from-behind effort on Oct. 19, 2012 in which Cal Poly scored in the 89th and 96th minutes. The Mustangs also earned draws at UC Santa Barbara in 2008, 2014-17, 2022 and 2024.
Cal Poly’s most frequent opponent at the Division I level, UC Santa Barbara leads both the Blue-Green rivalry series (codified in 2007), 17-13-9, and the Division I series, 32-17-12.
A tightly contested series, 27 of the last 36 matches between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have been decided by one goal or drawn. Eight of Cal Poly’s 10 victories in the 39-game history of the rivalry series 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 put four goals past the other). The Mustangs are undefeated at home against the Gauchos in 11 of the last 17 years while UC Santa Barbara has lost exactly once (2012) at home to Cal Poly in the last 27 matchups at Harder Stadium.
The best-attended sporting events annually in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, the Cal Poly-UC Santa Barbara series has drawn 37 of the top 79 regular season crowd figures in NCAA history (46.8 percent) with all matches occurring during the previous 19 years. The matchup at Mustang Memorial Field has sold out all 11,075 seats in 12 of the last 18 seasons – including for Cal Poly’s Sept. 25 victory.
Since the start of the 2007 season, 372,986 total spectators and an average of 9,563 fans per match have witnessed Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara clash on 39 occasions.
