Cal Poly soccer loses to UCSB in final minute of record-setting Blue-Green rivalry game
As tortillas and other objects soared down to the field from the stands, Cal Poly men’s soccer fell to UC Santa Barbara in a heartbreaking last-minute loss at Alex G. Spanos Stadium on Wednesday night.
The final score at the end of the night was 2-1, after the Gauchos held a 1-0 lead for much of the game.
UCSB scored a goal early in the 17th minute and held onto the lead all the way until the 88th minute, when Cal Poly midfielder Nate Colley converted on a penalty kick off a foul in the box committed by the Gauchos.
However, in the waning seconds of the match, the Gauchos crossed the ball to Salvador Aguilar, who headed it into the back of the net.
The Mustangs had one final possession to score, but the Gauchos booted the ball away in heart-wrenching fashion.
Despite the disparity in record (Cal Poly 0-7 and UC Santa Barbara 5-1-2), the Mustangs outshot the Gauchos 14 to 12 and recorded four saves to one. They had multiple close runs on the offensive end but couldn’t capitalize.
“It’s just kind of doing the little things, finding people on crosses, putting balls away, getting men into the box,” Colley, also the team captain, told The Tribune on Wednesday night.
“Offensively, that was a really great performance,” he said. “Incredibly promising, you know, we were able to threaten their goal that much.”
Colley, who returned Wednesday from a three-game absence, scored the penalty kick in the final minutes to tie up the match.
Cal Poly employed an aggressive defensive scheme that made it tough for the Gauchos to move the ball on the outside of the field. They denied the ball reversing to the other side of the field and forced them to boot the ball down field.
But the Gauchos’ poise over the young Mustangs squad showed through in the end.
The team made fewer mistakes with its passing midfield and generated quality looks at the goal. One goal was taken away due to an offsides call.
Goalie and Nipomo native Gabe Penner made a career-best three saves on the day. Two of them came in the first 15 minutes of the match and the third one came in the 78th minute where Gaucho striker Alexis Ledoux had a clear one-on-one against Penner, who knocked the shot over the goal to prevent the 2-0 lead.
Even with the loss, Colley still believes the team is heading in the right direction.
“My takeaways are we can hang with any team in the country,” he said. “Obviously, the start to the season hasn’t gone the way we wanted to. We played some good opponents. But to go out and do that tonight shows that we’re moving in the right direction as a team, and I’m really happy to see that.”
In order for the team to add wins, it starts on the defensive end, he added.
“It’s about heart and not giving them anything at all,” Colley said. “Obviously, we’ve given up two goals in the game, which is two too many.”
Record-setting season turnout for rivalry match
The attendance for the match set a national record for spectators this college soccer regular season with 10,392 people packing the stands, according to Cal Poly.
That’s only 683 fans short of a full sell-out of Spanos Stadium.
It’s not unusual for the highly anticipated event to draw a record-breaking crowd. According to a press release from Cal Poly, the annual Blue-Green matchup holds 27 of the 63 highest regular season attendance numbers in National Collegiate Athletic Association history.
Not only was the stadium packed Wednesday night, but the crowd was also amped up the entire way through as the Mustangs battled it out.
When Cal Poly went on a run to the goal, stole the ball or the referee blew the whistle, the crowd noise crescendoed throughout the stadium.
And in spite of a plea by Cal Poly athletics to limit tortilla tossing at the game, a number of tortillas made it down to the field throughout the night.
The team will now move to Big West play as it takes on the University of San Diego on Sept. 24 at 5 p.m., also in Spanos Stadium.
This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 10:42 PM.