There were 9,749 people, 110 minutes of soccer, five stitches in Chris Pontius’ head and two streakers.
The only place there weren’t numbers was in the scoring column.
The UCSB men’s soccer team battled conference-rival Cal Poly to a scoreless tie after two overtimes Wednesday night at Harder Stadium in a physical and heated contest that had plenty of exciting moments — just no goals.
The UCSB student section fired tortillas onto the field all night, but the stockpile waiting to be launched in a barrage after a Gaucho score never got a chance to be released, just as the big crowd never had a chance to fully boil over.
More important tortilla-launching, though, was that the result prevented the Gauchos from wrapping up a share of the conference title. They’ll now travel to UC Davis on Saturday for a chance to win their third straight crown.
Cal Poly (10-4-5, 5-2-3 Big West), which could have wrapped up its first conference title with a win on Wednesday, remains in first place with 18 points and is done with Big West regular season play. UCSB (10-5-2, 5-2-2) stands in second place with 17 points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie) while UC Irvine is in third with 16 points and UC Davis and Cal State Northridge are tied for fourth with 15 points. The top four teams qualify for the conference tournament, with the first-and second-place teams hosting first-round matches.
It was a high-energy, physical match on Wednesday, but the only one who could put a ball in the net was one of the two male streakers who bolted onto the Harder Stadium field in the second half. One of the men booted the ball into the Cal Poly net just as the goalkeeper was setting up to take a goal kick.
The streakers sprinted across the field as the crowd roared. One managed to make it all the way, but the other slipped and was pounced on by stadium security officials,
The Gauchos had some good scoring chances slip away in the first half, thanks to the outstanding play of Cal Poly goalkeeper Eric Branagan-Franco.
“He made two ridiculous saves in the first half,” said UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg.
Branagan-Franco made a brilliant save on a header by Pontius at the back post in the ninth minute, reaching high with his left hand to knock the ball away.
“You give him that 99 times and he’ll finish it,” said Vom Steeg of the shot.
“That’s a miraculous save,” said Pontius, who felt he could have done a better job on the shot. “That’s just terrible by me. I should have put that one away.”
“That’s Eric Franco,” Cal Poly coach Paul Holocher raved about the big plays by his senior goalkeeper. “He’s a special goalkeeper. When you play such a quality team like UC Santa Barbara, your keeper’s going to have to come up big with one or two big saves,”
The Gauchos took a big hit in the first half when Pontius suffered a cut on his forehead and had to leave the game. He would later return after getting five stitches and having his head taped like a headband.
The Gauchos came close to scoring in the 39th minute on a shot by Danny Barrera. On this one, Branagan-Franco dived to his right and pared the ball away with his right hand.
Branagan-Franco was in the right spot on another Pontius header in the 51st minute.
Cal Poly’s best scoring chance came in the 76th minute when one of the assistant referees called a hand-ball violation against the Gauchos in the box, giving Cal Poly a penalty kick.
Fortunately for UCSB, the Mustangs’ Anton Peterlin hit his shot over the crossbar.
The Gauchos took another hit in the 79th minute when midfielder Luis Silva was given a red card, leaving them a man down for the rest of the game.
Cal Poly took control of the action, but the Gauchos managed to hold on.
The Mustangs’ David Zamora had a great scoring chance a few seconds into the first overtime period, but UCSB’s David Walker hustled behind goalkeeper Kristopher Minton and kicked the ball off the goal-line. The Mustangs had three corner kicks in the first two minutes of the period.
With just 10 seconds remaining in the second overtime, UCSB’s David Walker took a pass from Pontius and let one fly from about 25 yards out in the right corner, but it missed high by about five feet.
“At that point it was just pure exhaustion,” said Walker. “I’m sure any other time I could have put that on frame, but 110 minutes is a lot of soccer and we were just spent.
“The crowd was great tonight. It feels so good to have this support.”
(PresidioSports.com correspondent Barry Punzal contributed to this report)
