Cal Poly men’s soccer falls to rival UC Santa Barbara 1-0 in Blue-Green Game

The Cal Poly men’s soccer team fell to UC Santa Barbara 1-0 at Mustang Memorial Field in San Luis Obispo on Sunday.

The annual match-up between the rival Central Coast universities, known as the Blue-Green Game, traditionally brings in sizable crowds.

On Sunday, the Mustangs drew a crowd of 8,128 fans — the second biggest crowd in all of collegiate men’s soccer this season, and the 40th largest crowd for men’s college-level soccer of all time.

Some students tossed tortillas on the field, a practice that Cal Poly has tried to crack down on. In 2022, the school asked local grocery stores to remove tortillas from shelves ahead of the Blue-Green game.

After being voted to finish ninth in the Big West preseason poll, the Mustangs came into Sunday’s game as the third place team in the conference.

Cal Poly went through a coaching change in October 2022 when longtime coach Steve Sampson retired.

Oige Kennedy, who was previously the head assistant at Stanford University for five seasons, stepped in at the start of this season as the Mustangs’ head coach.

“We want to have a certain way we want to play,” Kennedy said. “We always want to be on the front foot. We always want to go and press teams.”

Cal Poly falls to UC Santa Barbara in Blue-Green game

On the pitch Sunday, the Mustangs (4-6-3, 2-2-2 Big West) had numerous opportunities to score but couldn’t capitalize on any of those chances.

The feisty Mustangs stole multiple passes at the top of their formation and ultimately outshot the Gauchos 14 shots to 12.

“We want to be everybody’s least favorite team to play against,” Kennedy said. “We’re trying to create that mindset with these guys.”

However, Cal Poly’s high-pressure offense masked a defense that had trouble keeping UC Santa Barbara out of the box.

When the Gauchos got the ball on the attack, they had strong looks at the goal.

In the 81st minute, UC Santa Barbara’s Lucas Gonzalez scored on a cross from Salvador Aguilar.

In the 86th minute, the Mustangs got one of their best chances to score when Cal Poly sophomore forward Sean McTague had a straight shot at the goal that was deflected by the UCSB goalkeeper.

The ball ricocheted to sophomore Mustangs forward Conner Lisenbee, but his clean up shot was off-target.

As time expired, the Mustangs were down 1-0 with pieces of tortilla left on the field.

Freshman midfielder Diego Guerra is one of four freshman who made started for the Mustangs and played in their first career Blue-Green game at home.

“Overall, it was surreal,” Guerra said. “The fans were great. The stadium, the whole environment was just amazing. It was something that you can only dream to play.”

The loss to UCSB puts the Mustangs at fifth in the Big West.

The Mustangs’ next game comes on the road against UC Irvine on Wednesday at 6 p.m.