Despite several scoring opportunities inside the box from both teams, the latest edition of the Blue-Green Rivalry ended in a nil-nil draw between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara (5-5-4, 3-1-2) Saturday night.
The double-overtime match filled Harder Stadium with a massive crowd of 10,293 spectators, the largest in NCAA men’s soccer this season and the 21st largest in NCAA men’s soccer history. As anticipated, the rivals played a very physical match, tallying five yellow cards and 37 fouls between the two teams.
In the fourth minute of the match, senior forward Tyler Savitsky took the Mustangs’ first shot of the match, but blasted it high over the crossbar.
Strong defensive play by the Mustangs held the Gauchos without a shot on goal for the first 29 minutes of the match, but in the 30th minute, junior goalkeeper Simon Boehme stonewalled two Gaucho attempts to keep the match scoreless.
Junior forward Sean Goode led the Mustangs with five shots on goal and nearly gave the Mustangs the advantage in the 61st minute, but UC Santa Barbara goalkeeper Alan Carrillo was there for the save.
Goode fired off another shot in the 82nd minute to the top-left corner of the goal, but Carrillo soared to the ball and swatted the attempt away.
In the final seconds of the first overtime, the Mustangs saw their best chance to take the lead slip away. As the ball pinballed around the Gauchos’ penalty area, Carrillo made two more saves on shots from Goode and Savitsky that came just three seconds apart to send the match to double-overtime.
The Mustangs did not see another scoring chance in the match while the Gauchos were able to get off one last shot on goal with three seconds to play. Boehme launched forward for his third and final save of the match to preserve the shutout but collided hard with a Gauchos’ forward in the process.
Boehme stayed down on the field for a few minutes before being replaced for the last three seconds by redshirt freshman
Jason Hernandez.
With the draw, the Mustangs stopped a four-game losing skid and lifted their point total to four in the Big West Conference North Division. Cal Poly still trails third-place Sacramento State by six points with four games remaining. The Gauchos now sit in second place in the north division with 11 points.
Cal Poly will travel north to face division-leading UC Davis (7-6-2, 4-1-1) Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 4 p.m.