The Cal Poly men’s soccer team probably shouldn’t have to win the inaugural Big West Conference Tournament to make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“We should get in either way,” Mustangs head coach Paul Holocher said.
He has a case. If they reach the Big West title game, the Mustangs – who haven’t fallen below seventh in the NSCAA Far West Regional rankings this season – would have played their final five contests against ranked opponents.
Still, the next such opportunity, in the conference tournament semifinals at No. 20 UC Santa Barbara at 7 tonight in Harder Stadium, gives Cal Poly another chance to make a national statement in what has quickly become college men’s soccer’s most-watched rivalry.
Each of the past two meetings between the third-seeded Mustangs (10-5-5, 5-2-3) and second-seeded Gauchos (10-5-4, 5-2-3) went to double overtime.
The first was a 1-0 UCSB win in front of an Alex G. Spanos Stadium crowd of 11,075 – the third-largest in regular-season college men’s soccer history.
At Harder Stadium on Nov. 5, they battled to a scoreless draw before 9,749.
“It’s never happened to me as a coach so far in the 10 years I’ve been coaching,” Holocher said of meeting the same team so soon again in the postseason after a regular-season match. “We were prepared for any situation. I think it’s great that we’re playing again.”
Doing it exactly a week later could lead to some interesting gamesmanship, Holocher said.
“There’s no hiding now,” he added. “We’ve all got games to look back at and try to pick adjustments or changes.”
One switch Holocher seems to have made already is who will take the Mustangs’ penalty kicks.
Senior midfielder Anton Peterlin missed one in the 76th minute Nov. 5. Holocher said Monday that sophomore forward David Zamora would be assigned the duties tonight.
“It’s been so frustrating,” Holocher said of the Mustangs’ struggles taking and defending late penalty kicks. “We could be 16-4 right now.”
For the most part, though, Holocher was satisfied with the way the Mustangs responded to the Gauchos’ energy.
“Santa Barbara always comes out very hard and very fast at the beginning of a soccer game at home,” he said. “We knew that we wanted to weather those storms. As the course of the game went on, from about 30 minutes in, I thought we were the better team, creating the better chances.
“That was a great sign, because that really hasn’t been the case in the first two years I was here,” Holocher added. “But now, you can legitimately say we were the better team over the course of that game.”
The rivalry has even extended into the stands. On Oct. 17, play was delayed for several minutes prior to the second overtime when bottles were thrown in the direction of Gauchos goalkeeper Kristopher Minton.
At UCSB, Gauchos fans reportedly threw tortillas at Cal Poly fans.
“It’s not really a factor for us anymore,” Holocher said of playing in front of the audiences of record size.
No. 10 UC Irvine, the top seed, hosts No. 14 UC Davis, the fourth seed, in the other semifinal tonight.
If Cal Poly and UC Davis were to win, the Mustangs would host the Aggies in the title match, from which the winner earns an automatic trip to the College Cup, which begins Nov. 21.