SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 23 UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team takes on its first Big West road trip of the season this week, traveling to Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday and UC Irvine on Saturday. This week shapes up to be the Gauchos' toughest away stretch in conference play this year, with the Roadrunners coming in tied for first place and the Anteaters being the defending champions.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara and Cal State Bakersfield will kick off at 7 p.m. in Bakersfield on Wednesday night, while Saturday's game at UC Irvine will get underway at 6 p.m. Both matches will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos are one of four teams tied for first place in The Big West after one week of conference action, accumulating four points with a win over UC San Diego and a draw against Cal Poly last week. They will be looking to get back in the win column in both of their upcoming matches, having fallen by a single goal to both the Roadrunners and Anteaters in their most recent meetings.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
Alexis Ledoux has been the man to watch in Santa Barbara's attack, putting up some of the best offensive numbers in the country. After scoring twice in two minutes to lead the comeback over UC San Diego Wednesday night, the Frenchman now ranks sixth among all Division-I players with nine goals and fifth nationally with 21 points.
 
While Ledoux leads the Gauchos in goals by a wide margin, he is but one of three men with a team-high three assists on the year, and midfielder Filip Basili is another. The Norwegian made his first start of the season on Sunday against Cal Poly after a series of impressive performances off the bench. After Manu Duah and Ramses Martinez each picked up knocks against the Mustangs, Basili may have a larger role to play this week.
 
Despite how it seemed before the season, no position has been more settled in the Gaucho lineup than goalkeeper, where David Mitzner has played every minute. One of the team's two captains, Mitzner has been dependable all season long and picked up his fifth shutout of the season on Sunday, putting him seventh among all Division-I goalkeepers.
 
SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
Cal State Bakersfield (4-2-3) was picked to finish ninth in The Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll but they come into the weekend tied with the Gauchos in first place.
The Roadrunners have a win over then-No. 18 Portland in Portland on their resume, but they also lost 1-0 at home to the same UNLV team that the Gauchos dispatched, 4-1, just five days earlier.
 
Connor Mautino is the star around which this Bakersfield squad orbits, ranking 18th nationally and second in conference with seven goals, five of which have come in his last three games. That stretch includes scoring all three of the 'Runners' goals against Sacramento State. Beyond Mautino, only four other 'Runners have scored a goal this season, giving them the fewest different goal scorers of any Big West team this season. By contrast, 11 different Gauchos have scored at least once this year. Filip Arras does not have a goal but is the 'Runners' top assister on the year with four, which puts him just inside the top 50 D-I players in the category.
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine (4-5-1) was picked atop The Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll as the defending champions but stumbled out of the gate as they battled some injuries in their non-conference season. They have now won three out of their last four, though they did lose to Orange County rivals Cal State Fullerton at their home ground last Wednesday. The Anteaters have a date with UC Riverside in Riverside before hosting the Gauchos.
 
The best news UC Irvine got last week was that star goalkeeper Luke Pruter was back from a hand injury that had kept him out of the first two months of the season. Pruter was actually selected in the 2024 Major League Soccer SuperDraft but elected to return to UC Irvine for a fourth season. He has a 1.33 goals-against average and 0.714 save percentage in three games for the Anteaters this year.
 
On offense, UC Irvine is led by junior forward Agaton Pourshahidi, who has five of the team's 14 total goals. The Swede is also one of just two Anteaters with multiple goals on the season, the other being freshman forward Marcus Lee. Graduate midfielder Francesco Montanile leads the team and ranks 26^th nationally in assists, with five.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will return home to Harder Stadium next Wednesday, Oct. 16, to host UC Davis at 7 p.m.