Limited by an offense that has yet to find its stride, the UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer team settled for a 0-0 tie against rival Cal Poly in a non-conference matchup on Saturday afternoon at Harder Stadium.
The Gauchos have not scored more than one goal in a game since a 3-0 victory over North Florida on August 28. Their last three matches have ended in draws.
“We get the ball up the field, and we don’t really have the final pass right now,” said UC Santa Barbara coach Tim Vom Steeg. “We don’t have that final combination play. We have individual players with talent.”
On the bright side, UC Santa Barbara freshman goalkeeper Owen Beninga was a revelation in goal, maintaining the clean sheet in just the second start of his career. Beninga was ready for the moment, as 7,447 fans—the largest attendance at all levels of college soccer this season—created a frenzied environment.
“It was a great experience for sure. Definitely not something that I’ve ever experienced before. I was really happy to get that game under my belt,” Beninga said. “We knew that they are a good team and that it was going to be a hard game, so the team did well defensively.”
Beninga finished with five saves in the match as he aggressively attacked crosses, corners, and free kicks with stunning consistency.
Cal Poly got off to a fast start and controlled the run of play for much of the first half. Despite all of Beninga’s heroics, it was forward Steinar Bjornsson who made the best defensive play of the game, swooping in at the last second to save a shot from close range into an open goal with a back-heel flick off the line in the 18th minute.
In the 35th minute, a bolt of lightning in the distance forced officials to postpone the match for 30 minutes. When the teams returned to the pitch, momentum swung in the Gauchos’ favor as they earned back-to-back corner kicks just after the restart.
That momentum carried over into the second half, as the Gauchos outshot the Mustangs 10-4 after the break—but the goal never came.
“At the start of the second half, I thought we had some really good moments,” Vom Steeg said. “I thought they got really tired.”
With the tie, the Gauchos finish non-conference play with a 2-4-3 overall record and will almost certainly need to win the Big West Conference Tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament. They will open Big West play at Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday.
“We are gearing up towards conference. We know that is our avenue to get into the tournament,” Vom Steeg said. “We were hoping that today would be a good step forward for us before we start conference when it really matters and I thought today was.”
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