In the first installment of the Blue-Green soccer rivalry between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, the Gauchos were the ones to come out on top. The Cal Poly women’s soccer team (5-6-5, 1-4 Big West) lost 4-0 when they visited UC Santa Barbara (9-4-1, 2-1 Big West) on Thursday.
The 4-0 final score may suggest the Gauchos ran away with the match early, but such an assumption would be inaccurate. The score was 1-0 until the 69th minute, and Cal Poly forwards Elise Krieghoff, Caitlyn Kreutz and forward McKenzie Flood all had chances to equalize. But UC Santa Barbara’s offense began to explode around the 70-minute mark.
The Gauchos gauged the Cal Poly defense for three goals in an approximately 10-minute span, shifting the deficit from a plausible 1-0 obstacle to a nearly guaranteed victory for the Gauchos. Thursday’s match was the first time the Mustangs had been scored on three times or more since 2013.
The men’s side will hope to have better luck in its Blue-Green Rivalry episode. The Cal Poly men’s program will play its upcoming match against UC Santa Barbara at home on Saturday, with a lively student crowd to be expected. The men’s team has shown great promise this year and will be tested against the Big West-leading Gauchos.
The women’s team returns home to play UC Irvine on Friday, Oct. 23. The match will be the Break the National Attendance Record Night, with Cal Poly hoping to have more than the 10,128 attendees at UCLA and USC’s landmark clash last season.