SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — After winning their home opener on Monday night, the UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team will be back at Harder Stadium for a pair of matches this week, hosting North Florida in a first-ever meeting on Thursday night and Westmont in the 63r
d Community Shield on Saturday night. When the Gauchos welcome the Ospreys to town, it will be their first time hosting a team from Florida since Head Coach
Tim Vom Steeg's arrival and a chance to register a win over a team which made the NCAA Tournament in 2024. While Saturday's Community Shield match against the Warriors will be an exhibition and not impact either side's record, the Gauchos will look to remind their neighbors from Montecito who is top dog in Santa Barbara after the sides drew in 2024.
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos will be looking to continue their uptick in form after winning their home opener against Central Arkansas Monday night.
Buba Fofanah announced his arrival in Santa Barbara with the opening goal in that match, while
Zac Siebenlist punished a defensive mistake to score the game-winner in the second half. Late in the game,
Luke Skinner made a heroic save to preserve the result. It was Santa Barbara's first-ever meeting with a current Atlantic Sun Conference member; Thursday's match against the Ospreys will be their second.
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
Fofanah's goal on Monday was exactly what the Gauchos are expecting from the graduate student forward in his sixth season of college soccer. Fast and athletic, Fofanah can cause problems for a defense no matter where he is on the pitch, and he has the freedom to roam into wide areas or attack through the middle. Only one of Santa Barbara's attackers spent more time on the field than him through the first two games, that being freshman phenom
Steinar Bjornsson. A forward who has played and scored for Iceland's youth national teams, Bjornsson has been electric in his first two starts, and he would have had his first collegiate goal if not for a tremendous fingertip save on Monday. He leads the team in both total shots and shots on target.
Another Scandinavian,
Calle Mollerberg, played a key role in Santa Barbara's win on Monday by stepping out of his usual position. The Gauchos' captain and a Preseason All-Big West defender, Mollerberg played as one of Santa Barbara's two defensive midfielders last time out, with
Ramses Martinez making his first appearance of the season alongside him. Together, the two stabilized an area that was shaky against Oregon State, helping the Gauchos control possession, move the ball from defense to attack and limit chances for their opponents.
SCOUTING THE OSPREYS
North Florida comes into Thursday's match with a 1-1 record like the Gauchos, though their results came in the opposite order; after a 1-0 win at Wisconsin last Thursday, the Ospreys suffered a 2-1 defeat at Marquette in their last match. North Florida is coming off an ASUN Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024, though they finished last year with a losing record, at 7-8-4.
The Ospreys were picked to repeat as ASUN Champions in 2025 though, and four of their players were named to the Preseason All-ASUN Team. Forward and Preseason ASUN Player of the Year David Perez is yet to get off the ground, being held without a shot through the first two games, but redshirt senior Jaxon Reinhardt has picked up the slack, scoring in each of the Ospreys' first two contests and earning ASUN Player of the Week on Monday. Luciano Natoli, another redshirt senior, was named ASUN Goalkeeper of the Week after making 10 saves across the two matches.
North Florida's other Preseason All-ASUN selections, midfielders Anton Khelil and Rentaro Miyakawa and defender Jaylen Yearwood, all saw significant minutes over opening weekend, with Khelil assisting the game-winning goal at Wisconsin on Thursday night.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
Westmont does not begin their season until September, with Saturday's Community Shield match a preseason tune-up for the Gauchos' cross-town rivals. The Warriors are coming off a tremendous 2024 campaign which saw them go 12-5-4 and win the PacWest Championship before falling in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Westmont returns just three of their seven All-PacWest honorees from that 2024 team for 2025, headlined by first team midfielder Erik Guerrero. Also returning are second team forward Serkan Durna and third team defender Cash Anderholt, who captains the Warriors. Not an all-conference player but one of the two Warriors to score against the Gauchos in last year's fixture, forward Luis Cortes is also back. The other Westmont scorer in last year's draw, Connor Lynch, is the most significant loss for the Warriors after he was an All-PacWest First Team selection in 2024.
When Westmont came to Harder Stadium last season, they left with just the sixth draw in 62 editions of the Community Shield, and the first for the Gauchos under Vom Steeg. It was the closest that the Warriors have come to a win in the fixture since 2017, when they upset the Gauchos, 2-1.
FOLLOW ALONG
Both matches kick off at 7 p.m. from Harder Stadium, and fans can purchase tickets now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets. Fans can also catch all the action from anywhere by watching live on ESPN+ or by following along with live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/MSOC_Stats.
