Late heroics lifted Cal Poly to a 2-1 victory over UC Santa Barbara in front of the 11th sold-out Blue-Green Rivalry crowd at Mustang Memorial Field since 2008, giving the Mustangs their first win over the Gauchos since Sept. 28, 2024.
With the nation’s season-leading men’s soccer attendance, the Blue-Green rivalry was a spectacle in front of over 11,000 fans as the Mustangs (4-2-3) and Gauchos (4-3-2) went toe-to-toe for the full 90 minutes. A late goal from junior transfer Devin Bening ultimately pushed Cal Poly to a 2-1 win.
Some tactical choices were made by Head Coach Oige Kennedy going into the match, with 2025 Big West All-Freshman Team honoree Tanner Casey absent from the starting lineup. Casey was dropped in favor of redshirt junior Marlow Buettner. Another notable choice was Bening, who earned his first start after coming off the bench in all eight matches to start the season, proving a pivotal choice for the Mustangs.
“Devin has been really pushing and waiting to start a game, and we just felt like we needed to reward him for how well he’s done in the games and the impact he’s had,” Kennedy said.
The game started super aggressive between the rivals, with junior midfielder Colin Pearce drawing four fouls in the first 18 minutes, including one that resulted in a yellow card for UCSB defender Simone Ferrieri.
Pearce came into the game with a team-leading nine points, and the San Jose native appeared to be the target of several harsh tackles from the Gauchos. Pearce scored twice in the Mustangs’ last match and has three goals and three assists on the season.
“He’s one of our better players on the ball and finds the ball in pockets, so when you get in possession a lot more, maybe you get fouled a little bit more,” Kennedy said. “I thought he dealt very well and continues to be a really good creator for the team.”
The brute force and tactical playmaking were matched by Cal Poly until the 31st minute when a UCSB striker broke through the backline on a breakaway but was met by redshirt freshman goalkeeper Mathew Guerra.
Guerra, who has 16 saves across the first eight games of the season, came out of the goal for a one-on-one with the Guacho striker and made a huge kick-save on a double play to keep the game scoreless. The effort accounted for two of his four saves in the first half.
“Taking it back to our last game, it’s not the game I wanted, but I had to look past that and just prepare myself for what’s next,” Guerra said, “and bouncing back from that game to this is just insane.”
The pendulum swung the other way for Guerra just four minutes later as a controversial handball call in the box was overturned, putting Santa Barbara up 1-0.
Senior defender Keagan Rhodes was credited with an own goal, the first of his career, even though it looked like a Gaucho might have taken him down in the box. However, after a video review, the referee reversed the handball call to give UC Santa Barbara the upper hand going into the half.
Junior forward Charlie Hogan, who came off the bench in the first half, did not let the Mustangs go down quietly. Hogan, a physical presence offensively for the Mustangs, put away his second goal of the season by flying high over the Gaucho defense to head in a goal off a corner kick from Pearce.
With the header, Hogan became the fourth Mustang to have a multi-goal campaign during the 2026 season, a stark difference from the start of the season that saw nine unique goalscorers for Cal Poly before forward Finn Linas converted goals in back-to-back games.
“We’re constantly competing for positions and working. We all have the same drive around every single thing that we do,” Hogan said.
With a beautiful back-post delivery, Hogan’s goal marked a team-high four assists for Pearce.
However, the Mustang offense was not finished yet, as later on, Rhodes found himself in the final third and played the ball off to Bening, a second-half sub, who did what he does best: come off the bench and score.
For Bening, he continues a sensational first year at Cal Poly despite playing limited minutes. The transfer from Occidental currently sits second in team points with seven, while playing around half of the minutes that Cal Poly’s other top producers play.
The 87th-minute goal was enough to outlast a late offensive push from UCSB, making it Bening’s second game-winner of the year.
“It’s a dream come true. I can’t believe I am here now, and not even just being here; being here is amazing, but scoring, succeeding, doing everything I dreamed of,” Bening said. “Being here, this was electric. This is something I’m going to tell my kids about.”
Normally, a Blue-Green rivalry match like this would signal three conference points for the Mustangs, but with the new conference shifts, neither team begins conference play until Sept. 30, with Cal Poly now in the Pac-12 and UCSB spending a final season in the Big West before moving to the West Coast Conference.
This match, however, did signal the end of non-conference play for Cal Poly as they will attempt to maintain a winning record while opening up their first year of Pac-12 play against UC San Diego in La Jolla, Calif.