LA JOLLA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team embarks on a crucial road trip this week, visiting UC San Diego on Wednesday night before traveling north for the second leg of the Blue-Green Rivalry, at Cal Poly on Saturday afternoon. The Gauchos enter the week leading the conference standings, though they hold that position by just one point over their arch-rival Mustangs.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara is not alone atop The Big West either, as they were held to a draw by Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday night at Harder Stadium, the Roadrunners scoring a late goal to rescue a point and stay level with the Gauchos in the standings. Though Santa Barbara is still unbeaten in conference play, Saturday was their second consecutive draw after a far more convincing pair of wins in the first week of Big West action. Despite not quite getting the results they wanted, Santa Barbara did get individual performances to celebrate from their stars. Freshman goalkeeper Owen Beninga ran his shutout streak up to 531 straight minutes before Cal State Bakersfield finally put a goal past him, with the freshman making some great saves earlier in that same game. Also in Saturday's game, Buba Fofanah took The Big West lead in goals and total points, finding the back of the net for the fifth time this season.
 
SCOUTING THE TRITONS
As of Tuesday morning, UC San Diego is one of three Division I programs still yet to win a match this season, though they have drawn three of their four conference contests so far this season. Their last action was their first Big West defeat of the year, a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Prior to that loss, the Tritons had drawn three straight, coming from behind to rescue that result against both UC Irvine and UC Riverside. In terms of scoring, UC San Diego has had trouble at both ends this season; only 33 teams in the country have a higher goals-against average than the Tritons' 1.833 and only one Division I program has scored fewer goals than the Tritons' five. The Gauchos know Wednesday's match is an opportunity for three points that they must capitalize on.
 
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
Cal Poly, fresh off providing that 4-0 walloping of the Tritons, will visit conference bottom-dwellers Sacramento State on Wednesday night before hosting the Gauchos, meaning Santa Barbara will likely need to win their Wednesday night match to stay ahead of their arch rivals in the standings. The Mustangs had also started conference play unbeaten, with a win over UC Davis and a draw against UC Irvine in the first week, but stumbled with a 2-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton at home; the Mustangs and Titans begin this week level in the standings on seven points apiece, one behind the Gauchos.
 
The first Blue-Green Rivalry match of the year ended scoreless, thanks in large part to Beninga, who earned Big West Freshman and Defensive Player of the Week honors for his work in shutting down the Mustangs' cross-heavy attack. Cal Poly's Rylan Firouznam and Quinn Mahoney gave Beninga his toughest tests in that contest; Mahoney had been off to a red-hot start to the year with four goals and two assists to lead the team in both total points and goals, but he has been cold for nearly a month, having not appeared on the scoresheet in seven straight matches. Firouznam has been similarly iced out, with just one goal on the season. The one danger man that the Gauchos had no trouble with back in September was Tanner Casey, a freshman defender with four goals and an assist to his name this season. One of those goals and the assist came against the Tritons; all four of Casey's scores have come from set pieces.  
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff from Triton Soccer Stadium in La Jolla is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday night, with Saturday's Blue-Green Rivalry match from Mustang Memorial Field in San Luis Obispo kicking off at 4 p.m. Both matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.