SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men’s Soccer team will be hoping that the third try really is the charm, or perhaps trying to prove it true when they host The Big West Championship Final on Friday night.
This year is the Gauchos’ third in a row hosting the conference championship match at Harder Stadium, but on both previous occasions they were left empty-handed.
This time around, Santa Barbara will be hosting a Cal State Bakersfield side that is making its first-ever Big West Final appearance, having upset regular season champions Utah Valley last weekend.
Tickets for The Big West Championship Final are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets. Students from UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Bakersfield will receive free admission to the match by presenting their valid campus ID card.
The Gauchos already feel that they have exorcised some demons this year, having advanced on the road for the first time in their Big West Championship history, doing so by way of a penalty shootout after a scoreless draw at UC Irvine on Saturday.
Goalkeeper Owen Beninga made a crucial save and all four of Santa Barbara’s takers scored their spot-kicks to earn the Gauchos’ first shootout win since their first-ever Big West Championship contest in 2008 (though the Blue and Gold had only been involved in two shootouts between that 2008 semifinal and Saturday night’s).
Having fought off early pressure from the Anteaters, Santa Barbara was buoyed by their hosts’ reduction to 10 men early in the second half of Saturday’s semifinal, and the Gauchos would have won the game in regular time if not for some pivotal late saves by The Big West Goalkeeper of the Year in the Irvine net.
In the shootout, Kaden Standish, Donovan Sessoms, Steinar Bjornsson and Mateos Carvalho all finished with absolute confidence, while Beninga saved the Anteaters’ second kick and watched the fourth bounce harmlessly off the crossbar to wrap up the result.
Cal State Bakersfield essentially tied its way into this Big West Championship field, drawing four of its six conference games to finish as the No. 4 seed for the tournament, beating only last-place Cal State Fullerton and losing only to first-place Utah Valley.
The Roadrunners then went on the road and immediately got revenge on those Wolverines to earn their first Big West Championship victory in their third-ever match in the tournament.
Senior defender Filip Arras was credited with the game-winning goal on a free kick that bounced all the way through a crowded penalty area and into the back of the net in the fourth minute, as the Bakersfield defense held on for a 1-0 win.
Arras is one of eight All-Big West honorees for the Roadrunners this year, joined on the all-conference second team by seniors Jesse Wangusi and O’Shea Foster.
Two more seniors, forward Justin Knighton and midfielder Joey Velasquez, earned All-Big West Honorable Mention, but lest you think that this Bakersfield team is senior-reliant, three rookie Roadrunners — defender Jackson Chambers, midfielder Josh Robinson and forward Lorimer Bouman — all earned spots on the All-Rookie Team; Bakersfield is the only school with three selections to that particular squad this year.
Oh, and they have a veteran goalkeeper, Zenden Hart, who has a 0.67 goals-against average and a .786 save percentage across three meetings with the Gauchos, none of which he has lost.
In fact, Hart is a big reason for Santa Barbara’s five-year win drought against the Roadrunners; the Gauchos have only scored in two of their last five games against Bakersfield, and on both occasions the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
The last time the Roadrunners visited Harder Stadium, they snatched an 81st minute equalizer to run away with a point in 2025. The time before that, they ran away with all three points after an 86th minute winner in 2023.
The last time that the Gauchos beat the Roadrunners was two years before that, in a comfortable 3-0 win at Harder Stadium. Interestingly enough, Santa Barbara entered that 2021 matchup off the back of a 110-minute, double-overtime scoreless draw with UC Irvine.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. from Harder Stadium on Friday night. Tickets are on sale now, and students from both schools will get in for free by presenting their valid campus ID card.
Fans can also catch the match live on ESPN+ and follow along with live stats and play-by-play updates through ucsbgauchos.com.