UCSB’s high-scoring men’s soccer team returns to Harder Stadium this week with Big West Conference games against UC Riverside (5-5-1, 1-1-0) on Thursday and Cal State Fullerton (7-4-0, 2-0-0) on Saturday. Both games have kickoffs at 7 p.m.
The Gauchos have scored 16 goals in their past six games, going 5-1-0 during that stretch. Nick DePuy scored three goals last week to keep up his torrid scoring pace from last year. Since moving to forward full-time midway through the 2014 season, DePuy has netted 19 times in 24 appearances (21 goals in 24 games including Westmont), 11 of which have been game-winners. Most impressively, UCSB is an undefeated 13-0-3 all-time when DePuy scores a goal. He leads the Big West conference in goals (10) and points (21). DePuy was honored with a litany of awards on Monday. Most impressively, he was named the College Soccer News Player of the Week for the second time in his career.
As one would guess for the Big West’s leading offense (2.09 goals per game, 7th best in NCAA), the Gauchos are turning in a high volume of shots. UCSB boasts the two most prolific shot-takers in the conference in DePuy (38 shots) and Ahinga Selemani (34).
The Gauchos took their offensive show on the road last week, landing huge away wins at UC Irvine on Thursday and Cal State Northridge on Saturday, two of the better Big West programs in recent years. Falling behind by a goal in just the third minute against UCI, Geoffrey Acheampong got the Gauchos back in it when his 10th minute cross froze everyone and snuck inside the far post. DePuy finished off a beautiful Randy Mendoza through ball just two minutes later for the game-winner before Josue Espana lifted the ball over the keeper in the 87th minute to seal the deal. UCSB came out strong against the Matadors, firing a season-high 13 shots on goal and necessitating a superb performance from Matadors keeper Adam Hobbs to keep them in the game. Hobbs wasn’t perfect however, allowing DePuy to head home an Andy Perez cross in the 38th minute to put the Gauchos up 1-0. CSUN equalized minutes later however. In overtime, DePuy created and finished a scoring opportunity that made the Gauchos golden goal winners. Flicking an over the top pass from a Gaucho defender, DePuy played Seo-In Kim into space in the penalty area. Kim cut in and fired a close range shot at Hobbs, but the CSUN keeper blocked it. The rebound came to Ahinga Selemani, whose shot clanged off the right post, but DePuy swopped in and banged home the carom to secure the “W.”
Thanks to a tough schedule and big wins over non-conference opponents such as Stanford and UCLA, the Gauchos entered the week at No. 16 in the official NCAA RPI rankings, second-highest of any west coast team behind Seattle (10). This week’s opponents rank No. 61 (Cal State Fullerton and No. 144 (UC Riverside) as of Monday.
With the team’s conference home opening weekend up next, UCSB will look to continue its short-term and long-term dominance in Big West play. Over the past two seasons, the Gauchos are 15-2-5 in regular season Big West games, going an undefeated 7-0-3 in 2013 and 6-2-2 in 2014, both which resulted in North Division titles.
After drawing over 42,000 fans into Harder Stadium last season, the Gauchos have now led the nation in attendance for eight consecutive years dating back to 2007. Overall, UCSB has the seven largest regular season crowds in the NCAA soccer annals since 1980, including a record 15,896 crowd against UCLA on Sept. 24, 2010. The squad has been involved in 15 of the 17 best-attended regular season matches in that same time frame, with 11 of those contests being played against Blue-Green rival Cal Poly.
With the Gauchos scheduled to play five of their final eight games at home, that is bad news for the rest of the Big West Conference. Harder Stadium has been a fortress for UCSB in recent years, as the team has a .730 winning percentage at Harder Stadium since 2009 (51-17-6). UCSB hasn’t lost a regular season conference game at home since Oct. 28, 2012.
Sitting on 99 career Big West Conference wins, Tim Vom Steeg is one victory away from becoming the first conference head coach to register 100 Big West wins. Overall, Vom Steeg has a career record of 225-95-38 (UCSB re-joined Big West for soccer before the 2001 season) in his 17 years at the helm of the UCSB men’s soccer program.
