SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — There is a hint of 2021 in the air at Harder Stadium. That was the last year that the UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team held the no. 1 seed in The Big West Championship, defeating No. 5 seed UC Davis to earn the privilege of hosting No. 2 seed UC Irvine in the final. Four years (and a day) later, Friday's showdown for the conference crown brings the same matchup, seeds and all: top-seeded Gauchos, fresh off defeating the fifth-seeded Aggies, set to host the second-seeded Anteaters. That 2021 final was a rout, with Ramses Martinez's goal putting Santa Barbara in front inside 15 minutes on route to a 4-0 victory. Martinez enters Friday's rematch as the only player remaining on either team's roster to have featured in the match. And more has changed in four years than just the rosters; betting that Friday's title match will have the same scoreline as the last one would be outlandish (at least on paper).
 
LAST TIME OUT
That is not to say that the Gauchos have not already set off their fair share of fireworks in the postseason; they scored three goals to get past UC Davis in a barnburner of a semifinal on Saturday night. However, Saturday was just the second time they have scored three goals in a game this season, and they have never tallied four. In 2021, they hit that number three times before the final, including a 7-1 rout of San Diego. No, the strength of this year's Gaucho squad is its defense, which kept nine clean sheets on the season, including a 0-0 draw against the Anteaters on Senior Night just three weeks ago. In fact, Saturday night's thriller in the semifinals was the first time that Santa Barbara has conceded multiple goals in a game since Sept. 14 at then-No. 10 Marshall, a game since which the Gauchos have gone 13 undefeated. Along that run, the second-longest in program history and the longest under current head coach Tim Vom Steeg, Santa Barbara has built a staunch resilience, evidenced by their three-goal-in-12-minutes outburst to turn a halftime deficit into a victory on Saturday night.
 
"There's something about this team," Coach Vom Steeg said postgame. "It doesn't want to lose."
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine was the 11^th match of the Gauchos' current unbeaten run and their eighth draw, a 0-0 stalemate at Harder Stadium. It was the sixth for the Anteaters, who finished the conference season with the same unbeaten, 4-0-5 record as Santa Barbara, the Gauchos earning the no. 1 seed by virtue of their 1-0 win at Cal Poly, who joined the two teams in a three-way tie atop the standings. The Anteaters are therefore riding a 10-game unbeaten streak of their own and beat those Mustangs, 1-0, in the other semifinal on Saturday night. The lone, deciding goal came in the 84^th minute from Gage Lyons, who was not one of the seven Anteaters to earn All-Big West honors despite scoring four goals in the regular season, second-most on the team.
 
Irvine's leading scorer, Misael Gonzalez Lopez, and his seven goals did earn all-conference acclaim, joined by Agaton Pourshahidi and Brady Treinen on the first team. Nolan DiCenzo made the All-Big West Second Team, while Isaac Powell and Joe O'Shaughnessy earned honorable mentions and Gustavo Gonzalez a spot on the All-Freshman Team.
 
The snubbed Anteater, Lyons, gave Santa Barbara the most trouble in their regular-season meeting, firing three shots at goal, one of which was on target, both team-highs for Irvine on the night. Meanwhile, defenders Treinen, DiCenzo and Gonzalez, plus the goalkeeper O'Shaughnessy behind them, had their hands full containing Big West Freshman of the Year Steinar Bjornsson, who unleashed nine shots at goal that evening. Of O'Shaughnessy's five saves, four were to deny Bjornsson.
 
Coach Vom Steeg had dubbed that Oct. 25 meeting a Big West Championship-like game, largely because a win would have clinched a first-round bye for the Gauchos without leaving it to the season's last day, but it should not be surprising that it turned out to be a preview of this postseason meeting. UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine have met in each of the last four Big West Championship tournaments, dating back to that 2021 final. In each meeting, the home team has been victorious, and in each of the last three, the decisive scoreline has been 2-1.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff from Harder Stadium in the 2025 Big West Men's Soccer Championship Final is set for 7 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and students from UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine or any Big West member institution receive free admission to the match with their valid student ID. For fans following from afar, the match will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/MSOC_Stats.