The first-place UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer team will have to put its Big West division title celebration on hold until at least Wednesday.
Central Coast rival Cal Poly (3-9-3, 1-5-2) played conservatively, allowing only three UCSB (9-5-3, 5-0-3) shots on goal the whole game in front of a raucous crowd of 11,424 at Harder stadium.
UCSB’s defense was better, holding the Mustangs to only one shot on goal, and allowing no shots taken in the final 60 minutes of play.
The Mustangs found the net twice, but both goals were called off.
In the 15th minute, a Cal Poly goal was nullified by a handball. In the 47th minute, another Mustang goal was called back after a long deliberation by the officials who determined Kody Wasaka was offside.
One of the Gauchos best scoring opportunities came in the 18th minute, with forward Nick DePuy’s header deflecting off the crossbar.
“We’ve now run the streak of consecutive posts for Nick to game eight,” said UCSB coach Tim Vom Steeg. “It’s one of those unlucky streaks where he keeps finding the post.”
Forward Ahinga Selemani had two shots on goal, both of which were saved by Mustang goalie Eric Kam.
In the 58th minute, Gaucho Josue Espana had an open look at the net but fired a shot wide right.
Cal Poly was clearly worn down in the second half and struggled to get anything going offensively.
“We had them, they were tired,” commented UCSB midfielder Kevin Feucht.
One of Selemani’s shots on goal came in the 73rd minute, but a diving save by Kam kept the game knotted up as time wound down.
Tortillas rained down on the field at the end of regulation as the teams prepared for overtime.
The Gauchos pushed the ball down field well in overtime, with nearly all 20 minutes played on Cal Poly’s side. With six minutes remaining in the game, DePuy rifled a ball from 30 yards out just over the crossbar for the final shot on goal of the game.
“I thought it was a one way affair in overtime,” said Vom Steeg. “We were just hoping we would get that one goal we needed.”
In a game featuring dominant defense, 110 minutes of play was simply not enough to warrant a goal.
“I would say if we play five more minutes, we would get a goal,” Feucht claimed. “We moved the ball pretty well. One more good attack, one more good pass and one more good shot, and we got them.”
UCSB travels to second-place Sacramento State on Wednesday with a chance to clinch a Big West North title with a draw, or the overall Big West title with a win.
— Noozhawk sports reporter Christian Eckert can be reached at ceckert@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports and @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.