The Cal Poly men’s soccer team (6-8-3, 3-5-1) was eliminated from contention for the 2011 Big West Conference Tournament after falling to No. 9 UC Irvine 1-0 Tuesday night in its home finale at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
The team, which has never missed qualifying for the conference tournament in its three years of existence, will be forced to sit out the championship following a 56th minute goal by UC Irvine midfielder Miguel Ibarra.
Head coach Paul Holocher said the Mustangs played to UC Irvine’s level but weren’t able to create the chances necessary to get on the score sheet.
“I thought we played a pretty good first half,” Holocher said. “I thought we moved the ball pretty well, but we didn’t create all the opportunities that we wanted to. In the second half … we didn’t create anything substantial. Irvine is a good team. They drop deep, they don’t let anything get in behind them, and you have to break them down other ways with some different combinations. We weren’t able to do that tonight.”
The first scoring chance of the match belonged to the Mustangs as freshman midfielder Nolan Moore sent a shot on target, but was turned away by goalkeeper Andrew Fontein in the 16th minute.
The Anteaters (14-5-1, 6-3-1) responded in the 26th minute with a cross into the box that was cleared away from in front of goal by senior defender Patrick Sigler.
The Mustangs’ best opportunity to score on the night came just two minutes after halftime when senior forward Kyle Montgomery found himself streaking in from the left flank one-on-one with the Anteater keeper, but was stopped by Fontein.
UC Irvine opened the scoring 56 minutes into the match.
After receiving a through pass from midfielder Christian Hernandez, Ibarra drew out senior keeper Patrick McLain to his right and side-stepped him for an empty net goal.
Senior right back Cameron Walters — playing in his final home match at Alex G. Spanos Stadium — said the Mustangs’ attack-mindedness in the must-win match led to the goal.
“We were pushing forward, we were just trying to force it a little bit too much,” Walters said. “It was one of those plays where we forced it; Irvine is incredible in transition, they’re one of the best in the country. They had two forward passes and, one touch later, they’re in the back of the net.”
The Mustangs weren’t able to create many opportunities as the Anteaters controlled much of the play in the match’s final 30 minutes. According to Walters, the team didn’t play complete soccer against the visitors.
“Every play is huge with (Irvine),” Walters said. “You can’t play 89 minutes; you got to play 90 minutes against these guys. It’s a cliché, but that one play just killed us. For us we couldn’t get a goal tonight, we lacked a little bit of quality and we just couldn’t get shots on frame.”
Since losing senior left back Wes Feighner against UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 14, Cal Poly has failed to win a game and has only scored one goal during that stretch. Overall, the Mustangs have managed only 15 goals through 17 games played this season.
“It’s been our challenge all year,” Holocher said. “We’ve tried almost everything. We’ve been a little more direct in our play, being a little bit more patient in our play … but at the end of the day, we didn’t put away the few chances that we had.”
Redshirt sophomore forward Mac Pridham echoed Holocher’s thoughts on the team’s inability to score goals.
“Were getting a lot of opportunities and a lot of them are really close,” Pridham said. “We just haven’t been able to get a little luck and put a few in the back of the net.”
Cal Poly was effectively eliminated from the Big West Tournament with the loss and a UC Santa Barbara triumph over Cal State Northridge on Tuesday evening.
The Mustangs conclude the 2011 campaign Friday night against UC Santa Barbara for the second installment of the Blue-Green Rivalry in a nationally-televised match at Harder Stadium.