Much to the chagrin of those in attendance last year, antagonists from last year’s bout at Mustang Memorial Field made sure to reintroduce themselves to the new faces in the stands.
Cal Poly dropped the Blue-Green rivalry game 1-0 to UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, Oct. 15, inside Mustang Memorial Field
The game was filled with the trademark physicality of rivalries with a combined 27 fouls between the Mustangs (4-6-3, 2-2-2 BW) and the Gauchos (8-6-1, 3-2-1 BW). Both teams fall in the top 20 in the country in fouls per game.
To start, the Mustangs peppered UCSB with four shots in the first fifteen minutes but none of them were on target.
Then, it was the Gauchos’ turn to pin the Mustangs deep in their own zone.
The first real chance of the night came in the 20th minute when Alexis Ledoux, who bagged the opener last year, had a chance one-on-one that was stopped by junior goalkeeper Gabe Penner.
A minute later it was Pablo Figueroa’s turn at Penner but he was met by a wall of green and gold turning his shot away.
The 40th minute saw the Mustangs get a free kick just outside of the box of the Gauchos.
The cross bounced around like a pinball before finding the foot of transfer defender Emory Rapaport, the crowd rising and subsequently falling as the shot caromed off of the body of Leroy Zeller and out of danger.
“When you’re in a game and it’s tight like that you have to take the opportunities you create,” Head Coach Olge Kennedy said.
The halftime horn sounded and the teams entered the locker room with neither holding a momentum advantage.
It did not take long for the Mustangs to find danger as in the 47th minute a shot from Diego Guerra was turned aside.
More chances for the Mustangs were turned away in a two-minute stretch as the Gauchos were still hanging onto a tie.
A rash of yellow cards would soon follow, the first was issued to UCSB in the 72nd minute as Nalu Mack hacked down a Mustang down the sideline.
Tortillas floated down from the student section as the card was called.
Another card was handed out in the 73rd minute this time to Cal Poly as redshirt freshman Joaquin Torres returned the favor with a gratuitous tackle.
The game kept on heating up as UCSB got another yellow card in the 76th minute to Lucas Gonzalez.
The Gauchos finally broke through in the 82nd minute. Salvador Aguilar who stuck the dagger in the heart of Mustang fans last season, found Gonzalez unmarked on the back post to give the advantage to the visitors as they wheeled away to the corner in celebration.
Many of the 8,128 at Mustang Memorial Field fell silent after the gut punch, which ranks as the second biggest crowd in collegiate men’s soccer this season and 40th all time.
The Mustangs, now down a goal, were forced to push numbers forward and desperately try to find a winner.
This caused a lot of tension, a scrap broke out in the 86th minute that resulted in Johannes Vedin and sophomore forward Conner Lisenbee picking up yellows. More tortillas proceeded to rain from above.
The best chance that Cal Poly would have came in the 87Cth minute as a sophomore winger Sean McTague shot from outside the box was punched away and the rebound to a half-marked Lisenbee went wide. A “Green and Golden opportunity,” as Daniel Gillman called it on the broadcast, fell through the Mustangs’ fingers.
A shout for a Cal Poly penalty went uncalled as the game clock ran out, but as the night had dictated, after the match another scuffle broke out as the Gauchos applauded the Mustang faithful.
The Gauchos’ goalkeeper Zeller, continued his dominance of Cal Poly, having only two goals on his ledger over six games against the Mustangs.
“Just little mistakes,” Guerra said after the match. “We slipped up a couple times but overall played really good.”
“I think we created good chances and I think we created enough chances to win the game,” Kennedy said. “In that final moment it required somebody to have that little bit more quality in that finish.”
The winless streak against UCSB extends to nine games. The Mustangs’ last win was in 2018 at home.
Cal Poly looks to get back on track at UC Irvine on Wednesday, Oct. 18, inside Anteater Stadium at 6 p.m.