The soccer season in Santa Barbara starts with an explosion of games this weekend.
The UCSB women kicked it off Friday night with a season-opening 2-0 win against Cal State Northridge on the new Bermuda turf field at Harder Stadium.
Saturday morning, 182 youth soccer clubs from throughout the state will invade fields all over the community to compete in the annual Santa Barbara Soccer Club Summer Cup. The tournament features teams in divisions from Under-9 to U19.
Santa Barbara will be well represented in the event with 30 teams from the Santa Barbra Soccer Club competing.
The tournament runs through Sunday. Check Santabarbarasc.org for game times and field information. There will be 24 fields in use for the tourney.
On Saturday night, the UCSB and Westmont men’s soccer teams make their 2010 debuts in the annual crosstown rivalry match at Harder Stadium. Kickoff for the exhibition match is 7 p.m.
Westmont leads the all-time series 23-20-4, but UCSB has won the last nine games and has outscored the Warriors 29-6 since 2001.
UCSB will be formidable again. The Gauchos return nine starters from last year’s team that won the Big West regular season title and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament. They are ranked as high as sixth in the country in one preseason poll.
Leading the way for UCSB is the Latin rhythm section of Danny Barrera and Luis Silva in the midfield. Both were All-Big West first team selections in 2009 and Barrera was honored as midfielder of the year. College Soccer News named Barrera to its Preseason All-American team.
Big West goalkeeper of the year Sam Hayden returns after his monster 2009 season in which he set the school record with 16 shutouts.
Hayden will have a solid defense in front of him, led by senior and team captain Michael Boxall. He’ll be joined by two highly regarded defenders, Evan McNeil and Chris Hunte from Yavapai Junior College in Arizona. Those additions figure to make UCSB’s back line stronger than ever.
Up front is where the Gauchos are not yet settled, but they have loads of goal-scoring talent. Michael Nonni and Waid Ibrahim are back after productive first seasons in 2009 and newcomers Sam Garza, David Opoku and Gaby Okito have good credentials coming in.
The shifty Garza was a member of the U.S. Under-20 national team and the freshman of the year in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while playing for the University of Denver two years ago.
The 6-2 Opoku, from Accra, Ghana, is blessed with speed and strength.
Okito played on a national championship team at Yavapai JC in 2008 and was a JC All-American last year.
“When you start to put that entire front line together, there are just a lot of options,” UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg said. “It will be competitive. Hopefully we will be able to find good chemistry and the guys will play with each other and for each other.”
Westmont will be looking to develop that good chemistry, too, as coach Dave Wolf brings a young squad to face the Gauchos.
The Warriors have nine freshmen on their roster and just five seniors. Among the top newcomers is 6-foot-5 defender Peter Schmetz of Germany.
Sophomore goalkeeper Matthew McNab is coming off a good first year of playing in college. He started 13 matches and posted a 1.18 goals-against average.
Senior Dan Sargent is one of the big offensive players for the Warriors. He played in all 16 games for the Warriors last season.
The busy soccer weekend wraps up Sunday with the UCSB women hosting Cal State Bakersfield at 5 p.m. at Harder Stadium.
