In nearly every way, Cal Poly Men’s Soccer jumped in the deep end to start its 2025 season.
The team began its campaign with four road matches, including two against top-ranked teams in the nation. While Cal Poly finished the road trip with a 1-3 record, their end results hide one of the most dangerous squads in NCAA soccer.
The Mustangs were unbeaten at home in 2024, making Mustang Memorial Field one of the hardest trips in the country for visiting teams.
For the first time this season, The Mustangs will have their overwhelming home-field advantage for a matchup against No. 20 San Francisco on Thursday, Sept. 11.
“The biggest thing is just getting back in front of our fans,” senior forward Luke Schaefer said. “We do a lot of work in the community, so our fans are family.”
In addition to returning to a familiar environment in San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly is no stranger to picking up results after a challenging start to the season.
Cal Poly: A familiar position
Last year, the Mustangs also started the year with a four-game road trip. They went 0-3-1. The team then rattled off a nine-game unbeaten streak back at Mustang Memorial Field, propelling themselves to a Big West Regular Season title.
“We took some losses on the road, but we’re just using them as learning opportunities to grow,” sophomore forward Quinn Mahoney said. “The same thing happened last year where we kind of got off to a rough start, but that’s just getting used to how we play and how our coach wants our system to look.”
Mahoney scored his first goal of the season in Cal Poly’s 2-1 loss at Denver on Sep. 8. The Colorado team began the season as one of the best teams in the nation, coming off of a semi-final appearance in the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Facing strong opponents to open the season is not an accident, as Head Coach Oige Kennedy has made a point to challenge the Mustangs roster early on.
“Every year we’ve been here, we’ve tried to make the schedule a little bit stronger and test ourselves a little bit more,” Kennedy said. “I think the guys really buy into that and love the fact that they get to go against top teams.”
Cal Poly’s run of tough matchups continues against the newly ranked No. 20 University of San Francisco, which has had one of the strongest starts to the 2025 collegiate season.
Know the opponent: No. 20 University of San Francisco (4-1)
In a similar fashion to the Mustangs, San Francisco opened their season with a series of difficult matchups.
Coming into Thursday’s matchup on a three-game win streak, the Dons took down No. 17 California and San Jose State on their way to a top-20 national ranking. The squad also narrowly missed out against No. 1 Indiana, the 2-3 loss a testament to San Francisco’s ability to compete against the best teams in the nation.
Sophomore Brayden Beason leads the Dons with four goals in five matches, quickly becoming one of the NCAA’s premier attacking threats. The Texas-native made his collegiate debut against Cal Poly last year and finished the 2024 season with WCC All-Conference Freshman Team honors.
However, Cal Poly has faced San Francisco before, and the Mustangs have experience taking down their NorCal rivals.
Cal Poly is 3-1-2 against San Francisco, most recently drawing 0-0 in 2024. More importantly, the Mustangs have not lost at home against the Dons.
“Everyone’s very confident,” Mahoney said. “We’re the best in the country at home.”
Cal Poly’s nearly perfect 5-0-3 record and a series of dominant home performances from 2024 reinforce Cal Poly’s confidence at Mustang Memorial Field.
In addition to their home advantage, Cal Poly’s success in 2025 has also been underrepresented in the eyes of the team.
“I don’t think we’ve gotten the results our performances have warranted,” Kennedy said. “But that’s the sport, you’ve just got to keep going with it.”
Cal Poly vs. San Francisco starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sep. 11. The match can be viewed on ESPN+, and tickets to the match are free for all Cal Poly students.
