No. 17 UC Santa Barbara vs (RV) UC Davis (9-4-1, 3-1-0 BWC)

All-time record vs. the Aggies (W-L-T): 23-10-5

Last meeting: Oct. 17, 2018: at UCSB 1, UC Davis 0

Video | Audio (Pregame begins 2:45 p.m.)

 

No. 17 UC Santa Barbara at CSUN (6-7-1, 1-3-0 BWC)

All-time record vs. the Matadors (W-L-T): 25-16-5

Last meeting: Oct. 20, 2018: at UCSB 3, CSUN 0

Video | Audio (Pregame begins 6:45 p.m.)

 

Both matches this week will be streamed on BigWest.TV.

 

Additionally, audio-only broadcasts of both matches this week will be available on UCSBGauchos.com. Sports Information Director Arthur Wilkie will handle the play-by-play during the UC Davis broadcast, while current Gaucho student-athlete Carson Vom Steeg will join in to provide color commentary during the CSUN game.

 

Follow the @UCSBMensSoccer account on Twitter for highlights and more from both games this week.

 

UCSB saw both good and bad in its latest matchweek, defeating UC Riverside 2-0 on Wednesday to extend its season-long unbeaten run to eleven matches only to have it snapped at home four nights later in overtime in a 2-1 overtime loss to UC Irvine. Finn Ballard McBride's brace, assisted by Noah Billingsley and Rodney Michael, powered the Gauchos to their third Big West win of the season against Riverside in the midweek game. On Saturday night, Irvine broke through in what was a very tense first half, with Victor Falck scoring off a rebound in the 42nd minute. The Gauchos weren't able to create much in open play, especially after their star right winger Rodney Michael came off with an injury late in the first half, but Ameyawu Muntari was able to draw a penalty in the 68th minute that Thibault Candia promptly converted. However, the night was not meant to be for UCSB, as Oscar Cervantes fired UC Irvine to the top of the Big West table in the 95th minute.

 

Wednesday's match against UC Davis marks the first game in a three-game road trip that will close out the Gauchos' regular season. They face CSUN on Saturday night and then travel to Cal Poly for the second chapter of the Blue-Green Rivalry the following weekend. Of course, it's not a bad time of the season to get re-acquainted with the road- if the Gauchos finish as anything other than the first seed in the conference, they could potentially play up to three games on the road. However, UCSB has yet to lose on the road in five games this season.

 

Davis has picked up wins in six of their last seven, including a shock 4-2 win over then-No. 6 St. Mary's which was the Moraga, Calif. outfit's first regular season loss since 2017. Forward Kristian Heptner has scored in four of the last six games for the Aggies, and goalkeeper Wallis Lapsley has led the defense to six shutouts.

 

CSUN are bottom of the Big West and have lost seven of their last nine matches. The Gauchos will be looking to keep the Matadors' offense, led by Johnny Rodriguez's eight goals and Daniel Trejo's seven, quiet. The match is sure to be a fiery affair, as both teams are inside the top seven in the country in yellow cards and top 17 in fouls per game.

 

Heading into the conference's third gameweek, UC Irvine is at the top of the table with ten points after defeating UCSB on Saturday night. The Gauchos and UC Davis sit in second with nine points apiece, making Wednesday's match all the more important. Cal Poly sits in fourth place with six points, Sacramento State in fifth with five. CSUN is sixth on three points with the tiebreaker over Cal State Fullerton, whereas the Titans and UC Riverside are at the bottom also with three points.The focus remains at the top of the table, where Irvine faces Fullerton on the road and Cal Poly at home. UCSB and UC Davis face each other before Santa Barbara heads to CSUN and Davis travels south to Fullerton.

 

Senior right wingback Noah Billingsley and junior centerback Hunter Ashworth were successful in representing New Zealand U-23 at the Oceania Football Confederation U-23 Championship in Fiji, winning the tournament after defeating Solomon Islands 5-0 in the final. The Kiwi duo helped their home country qualify for its first Olympics since 2012 at the tournament. In the "Oly-Whites'" final match of the group stage, Billingsley started and scored in New Zealand's comeback 4-2 win against the Solomon Islands.

 

Following the Gauchos' 3-3 draw with No. 1 Stanford, UCSB started to get attention in the national polls. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Santa Barbara were ranked or receiving votes in all four polls for the first time since 2016, ranked as high as No. 18 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll. Now in the rankings for their fourth-straight week, the Gauchos remain fully ranked in all four polls. College Soccer News has them at No. 17, Top Drawer Soccer ranks them 18th, and both United Soccer Coaches and Soccer America consider UCSB the 20th-best program right now.

 

On Monday morning, Rodney Michael was selected to the Top Drawer Soccer Midseason Top 100 and Finn Ballard McBride made it on the publication's Freshman Midseason Top 100 list. Michael clocks in at no. 9 on the list, improving on his No. 67 ranking on the preseason chart. After being held scoreless in the first six games of the year, the Freetown, Sierra Leone-native turned his season around with a goal or assist in eight consecutive matches, racking up four goals and six assists in that span. Ballard McBride is on the freshman top 100 list as the no. 6-ranked first-year player in the country. Despite not playing a single minute in any of UCSB's first three matches of the season, the Australian's performances have vaulted him to the top of the Gaucho goalscoring ranks, as he leads the squad with eight goals. He scored in six of the Gauchos' seven matches between the away game at Pacific on Sept. 25 and UCSB's home win against UC Riverside on Oct. 16.

 

Ben Roach's 1,409 minutes played so far this season rank as second-most in the NCAA this season. The sophomore has started every game for the Gauchos this season following a highly successful freshman campaign.

 

In the match against UMBC on Sept. 22, Thibault Candia scored the Gauchos' first hat trick since Luis Silva did the same on September 23, 2011 against San Diego. The first goal came early in the first half when Will Baynham played the ball forward for Candia in midfield, where he dribbled the ball into the left side of the 18-yard box, where his attempted cross into the middle took an immediate deflection off the foot of an opposing player and into the net. In the second half, he put away a penalty into the top left corner and brilliantly dribbled the ball from just past midfield to a few yards behind the top of the box, where he got a shot off with his right foot. For his efforts, he was awarded the Big West Co-Offensive Player of the Week award.

 

Noah Billingsley became the first player in the Big West this season to record three assists in a game after assisting the second, third, and fourth goals in UCSB's 5-0 win at No. 22 Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 12. It was Santa Barbara's first triple-assist performance since Memo Arzate completed the feat in 2003 in his 18-assist campaign.

 

Oct. 5's match between UCSB and Cal Poly was the highest attended match in NCAA soccer so far this season, with the final figure of 9,748 fans toppling the previous high of 5,942 (Notre Dame at Saint Louis, Aug. 31) by nearly 4,000. The Blue-Green rivalry regularly attracts the biggest crowds in college soccer, making up for 19 of the top 30 all-time highest-attended matchups.

 

The UC Santa Barbara men's soccer program is debuting a revamped kids zone this season, featuring activities such as futsal, soccer golf, soccer tennis, and obstacle courses, at Harder Stadium prior to every men's soccer home match. The kids zone will be open to season ticket holders, from 6:30 p.m. up to 15 minutes before kickoff, and also at halftime. Fans are encouraged to arrive early as there is limited space for each game and the kids zone will fill up quickly. The play area will be open to children from the ages of 6 to 12. Event staff will be present to supervise the area, but parents/guardians will be required to sign a liability waiver on the first visit. The area will be located at the north end of Harder Stadium near the Gold Zone and Gaucho Fund hospitality area.

 

In conference play, the Gauchos' home matches against Sacramento State, UC Riverside, and UC Irvine offer a chance for revenge against a trio of opponents that UCSB only managed to pick up a single point from (2-2 OT draw at UC Irvine) last season. The final three games of the season see the Gauchos hit the road, culminating in the all-important second chapter of the Blue-Green Rivalry at the Alex G. Spanos Stadium in San Luis Obispo.

 

Last season, UCSB finished 9-0-1 at home, good for its best home record since the 2002 Gauchos went 10-0-0. That came a year after the Gauchos went unbeaten in eight of their 10 home matches during the regular season (4-2-4). In the Vom Steeg era (since 1999), the Gauchos boast a hearty .731 winning percentage (147-46-26).

 

UCSB were picked to finish first in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, receiving 53 points, tallied from the coaches' votes in which teams were ranked from 1-8 and assigned a corresponding point value, two points ahead of second-placed UC Irvine and eight ahead of CSUN. UCSB also received three first-place votes, whereas Irvine received two, and Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, and Cal Poly had one apiece.