SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team has reached the pointed end of their season, with just three games remaining before The Big West Championship begins in early November. The Gauchos will host two of those matches this week, welcoming Sacramento State to Harder Stadium on Wednesday night and UC Irvine on Saturday for Senior Night. Santa Barbara enters the week in second place in The Big West, trailing Cal State Fullerton and ahead of Cal State Bakersfield, each by just one point.
 
UC Santa Barbara will honor 10 graduating student-athletes before kickoff on Saturday: Isaiah Barber, Keaton Fargo, Buba Fofanah, Ramses Martinez, Dominick Phanco, Ocean Salari, Luke Skinner, Nicolas Willumsen, Haruki Utsumi and Eddie Villeda. With a pair of wins this week, the Gauchos will also be able to celebrate clinching a berth in The Big West Championship by the end of Saturday night.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara enters the week as one of just two teams still unbeaten in Big West play, with three draws and three wins through their first six conference matches. Their third win came in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, a 1-0 Blue-Green Rivalry triumph over Cal Poly. Utsumi scored the game-winning goal and played the full 90 minutes in defense to help secure the shutout, the Gauchos' third consecutive blanking of their arch rivals. Skinner played a key role in the clean sheet as well, making two crucial saves while deputizing for the suspended Owen Beninga in goal. Having sat out on Saturday, Beninga is available for selection again this week.  
 
SCOUTING THE HORNETS
In contrast to Santa Barbara, Sacramento State is one of two teams yet to win a Big West match in 2025, and with 10 losses on the season overall, the Hornets are the most defeated team in the conference. Their most recent result was a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of UC Irvine in Sacramento, the second time in as many Saturdays that the Hornets have been stung by such a margin. If there is a note of caution for the Gauchos, it is that Sacramento State has drawn both of their last Wednesday matches, including an impressive rescue job with two second half-goals to steal a point on the road at CSUN on Oct. 8.
 
Junior defender Nick Strangio scored the game-tying goal in the 87^th minute against the Matadors, his team-leading second of the season. Last Wednesday against Cal Poly, freshman midfielder Allbranly Gue scored his second of the year to open the scoring in what finished as a 1-1 draw. Gue's goal was assisted by junior forward Donovan Sessoms, a third-round pick in last year's Major League SuperDraft by San Diego FC, the same team that took Gaucho Manu Duah first overall. Sessoms leads Sacramento State in assists, with three.
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine enters this week sharing the Gauchos' distinction as undefeated in conference, though with just two wins and four draws on their resume. Those two wins have come in the Anteaters' last two matches after they were held level by UC San Diego, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield and Orange County rivals Cal State Fullerton. The victories, a 1-0 triumph over CSUN and the aforementioned 3-0 handling of Sacramento State, have UC Irvine in fourth in the conference standings to begin the week, just two points behind the Gauchos.
 
The Anteater's senior forwards Misael Gonzalez Lopez and Agaton Pourshahidi have led the charge in conference play, scoring five of Irvine's nine Big West goals this year, though the two are yet to both net in the same game. Pourshahidi is the hotter of the two currently, having scored in three of the last five, though Gonzalez Lopez ranks second in the conference with six goals on the year. There is something of an unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object feel to Saturday's matchup, as the Anteaters have scored in each of their last six matches, while the Gauchos have kept shutouts in five of their last seven.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff in both of this week's matches is set for 7 p.m. from Harder Stadium, with Saturday's Senior Night ceremony set to begin at approximately 6:45 p.m. Tickets for both matches are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and fans can catch all the action from anywhere, live on ESPN+. UC Santa Barbara students receive free admission to all Gaucho home games with a valid UCSB ID.