DAVIS, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team faces a pair of big matches this week, first traveling north to face UC Davis in a rematch of last season's Big West Championship match on Wednesday then hosting Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday. After back-to-back wins, 1-0 at Cal State Fullerton and 3-0 against UC Riverside, the Gauchos are tied with the Roadrunners atop The Big West standings after a week of play and will look to stay there this week.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos are unbeaten in five matches and perfect in conference play after their dominant win over UC Riverside on Saturday. Buba Fofanah scored his third goal in the last four games and assisted Zac Siebenlist's goal as Santa Barbara went ahead by two in the first 15 minutes of the match. Kaden Standish added a third goal with a great second-half free kick, and Owen Beninga made it four shutouts in as many starts thanks to a highlight save to keep UCR's captain from finding the top corner. Fofanah and Beninga both earned Big West weekly honors for their performances last week, Offensive Player of the Week for Fofanah and Freshman of the Week for Beninga.
 
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
UC Davis has had a rough start to their Big West title defense and remain winless after 10 games. After a 2-1 loss to Cal Poly in the conference opener, the Aggies faced UC San Diego in their last match and settled for a 1-1 draw, their fourth of the season. The Aggies finished with 18 shots, six of them by forward Chase Tanon, while goalkeeper Noah Schwengeler made a career-high 18 saves at the other end. Cason Goodman, the Aggies' points leader, set up the game-tying goal, finding Gavin House.
 
SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
After a rough start to the season saw them suffer six straight losses, the Roadrunners turned things around with back-to-back 1-0 wins over Sacramento State and CSUN to share first place with the Gauchos after the first week of Big West matches. The Matadors had previously been unbeaten at home. Senior goalkeeper Zenden Hart was named Big West Defensive Player of the Week after making eight total saves across the two shutouts.
 
Forward O'Shea Foster scored the game-winning goal at CSUN on Saturday, his team-leading second of the season. Earlier in the week, at Sacramento State, it was fellow junior forward Justin Knighton with the game-winning score. Foster and Knighton are two of just four Bakersfield players with a goal on the season. The Roadrunners will host UC Irvine on Wednesday night before visiting Santa Barbara.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff in both of the Gauchos' matches is set for 7 p.m., from Aggie Soccer Field in Davis on Wednesday and Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara on Saturday. Both matches will also be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com. Tickets for Saturday night's match against the Roadrunners are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and all UC Santa Barbara students get free admission with their valid student ID.
 
UC Santa Barbara Athletic Communications Intern Ava Arpaia contributed to this article.