SPOKANE, Wash. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team heads to the Evergreen State for the first time in seven years this week, traveling to Spokane for a Wednesday night Big West-Pac-12 crossover contest against Gonzaga. The Gauchos stay on the road but return to California and Big West conference play on Saturday, driving south to take on Cal State Fullerton. Santa Barbara on its last visits to each of this week's venues, both by 1-0 scorelines.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos come into the week after winning arguably the most important fixture of the season on Saturday night, taking down arch-rivals Cal Poly in front of the largest crowd in NCAA Men's Soccer this season at Harder Stadium. Powered by a near-spotless first half performance that saw Steinar Bjornsson, Zac Siebenlist and Kaden Standish all finish off well-worked goals, Santa Barbara rolled to a 3-1 victory and claimed the season series on a 4-3 aggregate score, all in front of 11,183 fans, the 12^th-largest on-campus crowd in NCAA Men's Soccer history.
 
Bjornsson's opener was his sixth of the season, putting the Icelander alone atop The Big West scoring charts again. Siebenlist's goal proved to be the game-winner and saw him finally put his name on the scoresheet after 12 games and 21 shots without bulging the net. Standish's finish was the pick of the bunch, a volleyed finish from Jack Middleton's looping pass (for the third assist of Middleton's career, all against Cal Poly) to break a similar drought of six games and 13 shots since his last goal.
 
Overshadowed by the offensive breakout, Owen Beninga had yet another sterling Blue-Green Rivalry performance, matching his career high with seven saves and only being denied a clean sheet by an unlucky late goal. Regardless, the Gauchos' big man still leads The Big West with four shutouts on the season.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Gonzaga is the only team in the seven-member Pac-12 without a point in conference play this season, having dropped California Baptist and UC San Diego at home, then to San Diego State on the road in its most recent action. The Zags have had better luck against Big West foes, beating Cal State Bakersfield in Bakersfield and Sacramento State in Sacramento. The Bulldogs' best result at their home Luger Field came back in August, a 3-0 win over Utah Tech.
 
Gonzaga's leading scorer, senior forward Drew Pedersen, put home the opener and game-winner in that win over the Trailblazers, and now has six goals and a pair of assists to his name on the season. UC Davis transfer Carson Hammond, who assisted the Aggies' opener in last year's Big West Semifinal against the Gauchos, assisted Pedersen and scored for himself in that August win over Utah Tech, and the senior defender ranks second on this year's Bulldog squad with two goals and two assists.
 
Cal State Fullerton likewise enters the week as the only squad in its seven-team conference that is yet to earn a point in conference play this season, sitting at the bottom of The Big West standings with an 0-3 record. However, the Titans do have wins over Pac-12 opponents UC San Diego, San Diego State and UC Riverside, as well as an impressive draw with defending National Champions Washington in Seattle earlier this year. The Titans will host California Baptist on Wednesday night and will certainly hope to regain their form against the Pac-12 for a bounce-back result before hosting the Gauchos.
 
On the field, Fullerton is still led by its now-veteran midfield duo of Fernando Valenzuela and Jose de la Torre, who have eight of their team's 16 goals and six of its 14 assists between them. Valenzuela leads in total points, with five goals and two assists, but de la Torre's three scores and four helpers put him level on pure goals-plus-assists terms. De la Torre has the hot foot too, with a goal against CSUN last time out and an assist against Utah Valley the match before that.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff in both of Santa Barbara's matches this week is set for 7 p.m. from their respective venues: Luger Field in Spokane on Wednesday and Titan Stadium in Fullerton on Saturday. Both matches will also be streamed live, on the Pac-12 YouTube channel Wednesday night and ESPN+ Saturday night. Fans can also follow along with live stats and play-by-play updates at ucsbgauchos.com/MSOC_Stats.