The friendly confines of Harder Stadium and a huge crowd for the Blue-Green Rivalry match against Cal Poly made UCSB head coach Tim Vim Steeg’s 300th victory that much sweeter.
The Gauchos delivered a complete performance and the long time coach took a gatorade bath following the 2-0 victory over the visiting Mustangs.
“That’s a huge milestone. It’s a lot of games,” said Vom Steeg of his 300th victory at his alma mater “It was really special tonight because of the way we played.”
The UCSB student section was in rare form with the first day of instruction coming up on September 28 resulting in the largest crowd of the season thus far of 5,749.
Nicolas Willumsen sent the crowd into a frenzy in the 17th minute, slipping a right-footed shot from close range into the back of the net. Alexis Ledoux found Jorge Aldana in the box and Aldana got low to head the ball forward to Willumsen.
“I felt like tonight, from our warmups to the locker room it was a really focused team tonight. It felt like a playoff game for us,” Vom Steeg said. “It’s hard for me to pick out a player that didn’t play well.”
Strong play by the UCSB back line led by Caden Vom Steeg and Johannes Vedin helped goalkeeper Leroy Zeller maintain a clean sheet. Zeller finished with three saves.
In the absence of attacking threats Nemo Philipp and Lucaz Gonzalez, the UCSB offense ran through Ledoux, who was electric throughout the contest.
A shot on goal by Ledoux in the 52nd minute was saved by the Cal Poly goalkeeper Justin Siegel, but resulted in a UCSB corner kick. Ledoux sent the corner kick into the box and it was punched out by the goalkeeper directly to the head of Nalu Mack, who converted the easy goal to put UCSB ahead 2-0 in the 53rd minute.
“This is amazing. It’s the only place in college soccer where this happens,” said Ledoux of the atmosphere inside Harder Stadium. “We’re really grateful for our fans and they are pushing us to be better and play harder.”
Zeller made his final save of the night in the 71st minute on a long range shot and Cal Poly never truly threatened down the stretch.
With the non-conference victory UCSB improved to 5-4 overall this season and 5-1 at home. The Gauchos will travel to UC San Diego for their Big West opener on Wednesday. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN+.