New conferences and injured players will not halt one of college soccer’s greatest rivalries, as the Blue-Green Rivalry game approaches for the first time during the 2026-27 school year, with a return to the famous night game for the first time since 2023.
With conference play beginning next week for both teams, it will be a contest to see which rival starts on a high note as both look to bounce back after tough losses.
Last season, the Mustangs and the Gauchos tied their first match, and UCSB took the second with a 1-0 victory. Cal Poly hasn’t won the iconic rivalry matchup since Sept. 28, 2024, when it won 2-0, with current redshirt junior Diego Guerra finding the back of the net with a penalty kick in the 70th minute.
Guerra, who spent a year away from the pitch recovering from a knee injury, enters the UCSB match after recently returning to play against Utah Tech for the first and only time this season so far, playing nine minutes.
“It’s going to be such an amazing game. The fans come out every single year, and they bring so much energy,” Guerra said.
Another player to watch as he returns from injury is junior forward Quinn Mahoney. Mahoney tore his ACL at the end of the 2025 season and has spent the first half of this season working his way back up on limited minutes.
Mahoney has started two of the last three games and has already recorded a goal and an assist this season. Mahoney and Guerra are both former All-Big West players known for making a difference when they step on the field.
“We’re going to do our best to put on a show and get the result,” Mahoney said.
On the defensive side, Cal Poly has had an ever-changing lineup of defenders as they look to find the right core group in the absence of their captain and former Big West Defender of the Year, senior Parker Owens.
Owens suffered a season-ending knee injury, so other defensive options have stepped up in his absence, including sophomores Tanner Casey, Cole Aman and Michael Baumgaertel, as well as freshmen Matt Rajecki and Peyton Marmion.
“We have to create a culture where it’s the next man up, and we never want to see guys get injured, but we do want to see guys that take advantage of that opportunity that comes by,” Head Coach Oige Kennedy said.
With redshirt freshman goalkeeper Mathew Guerra set to experience his first UCSB match as a starting goalie, it will be a good test of how ready the Mustang defense is for conference play as the Gaucho offense has scored in every match this season.
Many may have been uncertain about where these rivalry matches stood after it was announced that Cal Poly was moving to the Pac-12 Conference in 2026, and that UCSB would be inaugurated into the West Coast Conference in 2027. However, Kennedy made it clear that in his mind, the rivalry is here to stay.
“I envision it being a non-conference, twice-a-year, home and away,” Kennedy said. “The plan is to keep the game intact, at least on our end.”
With this confirmation, it means that the Mustangs will look to end their one-match skid and begin the fight to overtake the all-time scoreline between the rivals, where UCSB has 16 wins, Cal Poly has 13 wins, and nine draws have been shared.
One of the biggest rivalries in college soccer will meet on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. when the Blue-Green rivalry game returns to a night game in Spanos Stadium.