Ryan ChartrandOnly a few years ago, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara may as well have been on opposite ends of the continent when it came to men’s soccer. Now, their proximity on the field reflects the closeness of the hour-and-a-half drive connecting the two.
The Mustangs lost 12 in a row to the Gauchos from 2001 through 2006, and often averaged attendances of fewer than 500 at the school’s generic sports complex.
Both emphatically changed Oct. 17, 2007, when Cal Poly upset UCSB, the defending national champion, 2-1 before an Alex G. Spanos Stadium crowd of 7,143 – an audience that shattered the school’s previous standard of 2,694 set nearly 11 years earlier.
The match, in which there were a combined 45 fouls, four yellow cards and a red card, signaled not only a newfound depth of the Big West Conference, but also that the rivalry actually deserved to be called one.
“It was heated,” Cal Poly head coach Paul Holocher said. “I think four or five years ago, Santa Barbara didn’t consider it a rivalry.”
They’ll meet again at the same site for the one-year anniversary at 8 p.m. Friday in Cal Poly’s first nationally televised, National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Fox Soccer Game of the Week.
“I think the game will be physical in nature only because there will be two teams really desperate to win,” UCSB head coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “There will be a bunch of people in the stands, so people are going to run into each other and get after each other. If it’s someone’s first time at a soccer game, they may look and go, ‘Oh my gosh! Those guys are killing each other!’ ”
Holocher voiced similar expectations.
“We’ve been looking forward to it all year long,” Holocher said. “There’s such a good rivalry now between these two schools, it’s going to be a special, special atmosphere.”
The date and surroundings may be where the similarities end for the Gauchos, (7-4-2, 2-1-1), ranked 23rd in the NSCAA/adidas, Soccer Times and College Soccer News polls. They lost four players in the Major League Soccer SuperDraft, including All-Americans Andy Iro and Ciaran O’Brien, and two other starters graduated.
Consequently, the Gauchos have allowed 25 goals through 13 contests – two more than they did in 21 a year ago.
“It’s been a very up-and-down season,” Vom Steeg said. “The combination of being young with the injuries we’ve suffered this year means every single game has been a real challenge for us. Friday night is an opportunity for us to see how much we’ve matured and grown up.”
Three starters for Cal Poly (8-3-2, 3-1) are seniors who played in last year’s game.
“We’re more prepared this year for big-game situations because of our experience from last year,” said Mustangs senior midfielder Anthony Grillo, who scored the game-winner a year ago. “And this is definitely a huge game for our young program.”
The Gauchos’ “most dangerous” threat, Holocher said, is senior forward Chris Pontius, whose nine goals entering the week tied for 21st in the country in per-game average.
“He’s one of the best players in the country,” Holocher said of the CSN preseason All-American whose 66 shots are nearly three times the total of any teammate. “He’s the obvious person that we have to be concerned with.”
Slightly more balanced Cal Poly features seven players who’ve tallied six to 11 points.
“We have a number of guys that can score from the left, from the right, from the middle or up top, so we play a good brand of soccer and you can’t really key on one guy,” Holocher said.
Cal Poly opened the season 24th in the CSN poll – the highest preseason ranking in program history – but found itself unranked after mounting just one shutout during a 3-2-1 start.
Since, though, the Mustangs have blanked four teams and lost only to UC Davis, ranked No. 7 in both the NSCAA/adidas and Soccer Times polls.
Much of that resurgence can be credited to a 6-0 mark at home.
“It’s a pivotal point in our season,” Grillo said. “Spanos is definitely a place we have a lot of pride playing in and we try to protect it.”
UCSB hasn’t won two straight since starting 3-0.
“I think it’s a dead heat,” Holocher said of the two “very comparable” teams. “I think this game is going to be a very attacking game.”
Vom Steeg said he expects a crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 people – an audience that might break the regular-season Big West record of 8,102 UCSB set in Isla Vista last year in a 3-1 win against Cal Poly just a little more than two weeks after the two sparred in San Luis Obispo.
“We tell (the players) to be like a racecar driver – not like that kid in high school who’s got his first license and is driving crazy around town,” Holocher said of maintaining focus in front of the rivalry’s record crowds. “You’ve got to have an intensity matched by composure.”
Vom Steeg also emphasized keeping his players grounded, especially with the burden of carrying on the legacy of such a storied program.
“Unless we win every game, people are wondering if something’s wrong with us,” he said. “We want to temper that, and don’t want the players to be put in a position where they’re pressing. So we’ve had to downplay expectations.”
If there’s a conference with lofty expectations on the West Coast, it’s the Big West, which five of the top eight teams in the NSCAA/adidas Far West regional rankings call home.
“I think the whole conference has jumped up,” Holocher said. “It’s not just Santa Barbara like it was four or five years ago.”
Vom Steeg took it a step further.
“I think where we’re heading, we’re not that far off from the ACC,” he said.
That rise to national prominence is epitomized by the suddenly revived fray on the Central Coast.
“Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo are both perfect soccer towns and communities,” Vom Steeg said. “It’s great for college soccer.”