Frank Stanzl
Listen to a podcast interview with head coach Paul Holocher.
In this year’s Big West coaches preseason poll, the Cal Poly men’s soccer team was picked to finish fifth.
Tonight Cal Poly will square off against defending national champion and conference rival No. 15 UC Santa Barbara for sole possession of first place in the Big West.
“They’re obviously a very experienced team,” head coach Paul Holocher said. “They’ve just won the national championship. The players are full of confidence, they’re used to winning.”
The Gauchos are entering the game with a 6-2-3 overall record while the Mustangs boast an 8-1-1 overall record. Both teams sit atop the Big West standings with a 3-0-1 conference record.
Cal Poly is No. 1 in the nation in shutout percentage with seven in 10 games, something Holocher attributes to good team play in the backfield.
“Defending is a group effort,” Holocher said. “We defend with 11 players. Our forwards work very hard to defend.”
Specifically, Holocher pinpointed the team’s four backs Brian Jones, Casey Cordray, K.J. Lenehan and Josh Didion as key components of the team’s defense.
Cal Poly leads the Big West in goals allowed, giving up only eight all season. The statistic will be put to the test in the game as UC Santa Barbara leads the Big West with 200 shots on goal, an average of 18.18 per game.
Goalkeeper Eric Branagan-Franco leads the conferencc with six shutouts and he has emerged as a vocal leader on the field.
“I told Eric that the worst stat you can have was most saves, because if you have a stat that says you’ve got the most saves it means there’s a lot of shots coming on you,” Holocher said. “The goal keeper’s No. 1 job is to organize his defense in front of him and to order them in such a way that you’re preventing shots from happening.”
Branagan-Franco’s leadership was best displayed in Sunday’s UC Davis game when Cal Poly allowed the Aggies an indirect kick – meaning UC Davis had to touch the ball once before scoring – from about 12 yards out.
The team organized a wall in front of Branagan-Franco about 10 yards from the ball to prevent the score.
“In the very last second, Branagan-Franco broke through the wall, he was on his goal line, and told them to get on the goal line . he was a one-person wall and as soon as they (Davis) touched it to the side he raced out and dived and deflected the ball,” Holocher said. “It was a real-time decision and it was a good one.”
Leading the offensive attack for the Gauchos will be Chris Pontius and midfielder Eric Avila.
Pontius played at the right-back defender position last season but has adjusted to his new spot up field with eight goals, making him the top goal scorer in the Big West. He is tied for 13th in the NCAA in goals per game.
“He’s physically fast, he’s 6-1, strong and (has) explosive speed,” Holocher said. “He’s a handful . he’s someone we definitely got to keep an close eye on, be very close to, have cover behind our defenders when he’s around and basically you try and contain Chris.”
Avila, who earned All-American honors in 2006, leads the conference in assists with four and assisted Pontius only once.
Cal Poly will be without its leading goal scorer Daniel Cumming, who was found to have torn his anterior cruciate ligament after scoring his fifth goal of the season in the Mustangs 3-0 win over the Aggies. He will be out for the season.
“What that means is that other players are going to have to step up,” Holocher said. “We do have players that can do that.”
Of those players will be freshman David Zamora who is second in scoring on the team with Julian Alvarez. The two each have four goals.
Zamora has scored three goals in his past two games which earned him Big West Player of the Week and College Soccer News Team of the Week honors.
Another offensive threat has been Kyle Montgomery who has scored three goals this season and has also contributed in assists. Montgomery and Zamora have seven assists between the two of them.
Holocher insists that the home crowd is a major factor in the momentum of the game.
Cal Poly is 5-0 at home this season.
“This is going to be fun,” Holocher said. “This is going to be a really exciting game and win, lose, or draw you know that the team is going to be fighting hard.”