Don’t fear the tree.

On Wednesday night, Cal Poly men’s soccer will take-on Stanford, the nation’s top-ranked team, at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The exhibition match will be the first of two this week for the Mustangs. On Sunday evening, they’ll square off against Loyola Marymount before playing their first actual game at North Carolina the following week.

Cal Poly’s first two weekends or real games will be spent on the road. First, they’ll face ACC foes and top-10 teams North Carolina and Wake Forest before traveling to New Mexico to play the Lobos and Air Force the following weekend. The first home match that counts in their final record will be Sunday, September 11th against Fresno Pacific.

Kaba Alkebulan may have more opportunities to do damage front of goal this year. Photo by Owen Main

In their Green-Gold scrimmage on Saturday, key players George Grote and Trenton Matson were unavailable and Justin Dhillon rolled his ankle early in the first half. Though they lost four seniors to the USL and MLS after last year, this year’s Cal Poly team has added some depth in the offseason. Freshmen like Christian Enriquez, Sebastian Herran, Diego Alonso, Patch Johanssen, Kenneth Higgins, and Brayden Myus should all get opportunities to contribute.

Freshman midfielder Daniel Malki (Phoenix, AZ) is a Cal Poly legacy, following in his brother George’s footsteps.

Returning players like Matson, Ramiro Molina-Valerio, Joseph Bolous, Kaba Alkebulan, Adam Olsen, Bjorn Sandberg, Nick Carroll, Jack O’Connor, Jared Pressley, and Ruben Duran look to make improvement over last season to account for the loss in production and leadership from departures of Matt LaGrassa, Kip Colvey, Chase Minter, and Wade Hamilton.

Kody Wakasa, with a fresh white haircut and a familiar gritty attitude will lead the back line along with Matson. Justin Dhillon, who was a top-50 national recruit out of high school, has a final chance to play with his brother Sean — both are in their senior season. Tony Scimeca will compete for time in the middle of the back line and Brett Foreman, who was really effective two years ago before being injured last season.

The biggest question mark for this team might be who starts in goal. Eric Kam is a junior and has been in the program for two years already behind Hamilton. Simon Boehme, a Danish sophomore, has also waited his turn.

On the field, Boehme looks a little more Hamilton-esque, but Kam has been in the program for some time as well. I’ll give a slight edge to Boehme based only on the Green-Gold game, but either could be the guy in goal for the Mustangs this year.

Steve Sampson’s team will face North Carolina, UCLA, Wake Forest, and San Diego State. Cal Poly will have a tough schedule all year, but no game will be more fun than Saturday October 15th at Spanos Stadium against UCSB.

First thing’s first though.

Stanford is coming to town.

Photos from Cal Poly’s – Green-White scrimmage on Saturday

Find them all at photos.fansmanship.com

This might have been his last Blue-Green game at home. Instead, Cal Poly junior defender Kody Wakasa was injured and watched last season from the sidelines as the Mustangs struggled at the bottom of the Big West’s Northern division standings.

On Saturday night, in front of a fevered 11,075 fans at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, Wakasa headed a 104th minute corner kick into the back of the net to send Cal Poly to a 3-2 win. As soon as the goal hit the back of the net, thousands of fans stormed the field. Among them was Wakasa’s little brother, who has been executing some friendly trolling of him and teammates on twitter during Cal Poly Internet broadcasts.

@TheDaveGrant Kody needs to score to prove his worth he's never scored. It's Kelly Wakasa from bayarea. Chase minter=Neil Patrick Harris?

— Kelly Wakasa (@KellyWakasa) October 9, 2015

The Wakasas’ smiles told it all after Kody’s first goal as a Mustang. By Owen Main

Forget for a second that he also called out Chase Minter as being a ringer for NPH. He said, a little more than a week before he scored the Blue-Green game-winner, that that Kody needs to score a goal to prove his worth.

Kody did a pretty good job proving his worth, playing a physical game agains the Big West’s most physical striker, Nick DePuy. DePuy did have a number of good looks at goal, but couldn’t convert. Wakasa toed the line with his physicality all night, earning a yellow card for his rough play in the first minute of extra time.

Here it is again — Wakasa’s game-winner (about :50 in), if you haven’t already seen it.

Cal Poly will face Sacramento State at home on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm before renewing the Blue/Green Rivalry at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara on Saturday night.

Along with returning players, freshman, and transfers, Cal Poly will have defensive midfielder Kody Wakasa back in the lineup. By Owen Main

After their 2-0 defeat of Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal Poly men’s soccer will continue their exhibition season with a match against Pac-12 champion Stanford on Saturday evening at 7:00pm at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. Admission is free.

Under new head coach, Steve Sampson, Cal Poly is changing some things about the way they play. Sampson told all players that no positions were guaranteed going into the Spring season, and players seem to have taken it to heart.

The return of Ruben Duran and Kody Wakasa, both of whom redshirted last season, along with transfer Bjorn Sandberg bolsters the team’s depth immediately. Cal Poly only lost one player to graduation after last season.

Also back in the mix are Brett Foreman and Nick Carroll, both of whom missed significant time last year. Adding in the freshmen who will compete next season, it seems that depth — a weakness for the Mustangs a season ago — may be slowly turning into a strength.

Steve Sampson has high expectations for the Cal Poly program. While the outcome of a spring game or two won’t make a huge difference in the long run, players are fighting for Fall playing time right now, and I think it will be fascinating to watch this team’s transition over the next 12-18 months.

After the Stanford game, Cal Poly has a few additional games this spring. Head Coach Steve Sampson discusses it below.

Photos by Owen Main

Mackenzie Pridham blasts the game-winning goal on Sunday afternoon vs. Yale. By Owen Main

The first Cal Poly soccer match I went to this year was a dud. The Mustangs looked listless, didn’t create many good chances, and lost to Gonzaga in overtime. It looked like it was happening all over again.

On Sunday, it looked nearly like a carbon copy of the Gonzaga match, except Yale took advantage of Cal Poly’s mistakes and went ahead 2-0 at halftime. While they had the run of play, they used a lot of less-effective long passes and were to crack the middle part of the final third of the field. A defensive mistake by Cal Poly and a timely counter fr

Connor Drechsler put Cal Poly within 2-1 early in the second half on a cross from Chris Bernardi. Bernardi, who comes off the bench for Holocher, has looked like the fastest, most effective Mustang with the best first touch in the two games I’ve been to this season. In short, he puts a lot of pressure on defenders. Dreschler has three career goals on only three career shots on goal.

During the final 20 minutes of the second half, Yale did everything they could to legally bleed the clock. As Cal Poly’s offense started to turn up the pressure, two Bulldogs went down with what seemed like leg cramps. They subbed players every few minutes. They took their time on free kicks.

But in the end, it wasn’t enough.

With less than 90 seconds left in the match, sophomore Matt LaGrassa fired a left-footed blast into the right side of the net to tie the match. Yale’s collective hands went to their heads. Mustangs players climbed briefly onto the barrier with the stands in front of the Mustang Manglers section.

In overtime, Cal Poly persevered. Mackenzie Pridham, who had played a very physical second half, finally found himself free and quickly buried the game-winner past Yale keeper Blake Brown in the 100th minute to cap the comeback.

Chase Minter celebrates with Matt LaGrassa (20) after LaGrassa’s game-tying goal. By Owen Main

The final 55 minutes of the match– the second half and overtime — were a dominant display by Cal Poly. As discussed in my soccer preview, if the Mustangs are going to have any chance at the Big West title, careless mistakes at the back line cannot happen. A team like UCSB, Davis, or Cal State Northridge will be nearly impossible to come back on from 2-0 down in a game like Sunday’s.

I always find Paul Holocher’s comments about style of play interesting. While Yale consistently played in the second half with 8 players behind the ball defensively, Cal Poly did their best to keep the field open, maintain possession, and use the whole pitch.

I would rather lose trying to play this way than win in another way. I think our fans appreciate how we get things done as much as the outcome,” said Holocher.

In other words, the team needs to get better at the style of play, particularly with turnovers deep in the defensive zone. Holocher’s team will play two games in Colorado next week before starting conference play.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

PHOTOS CAN ALSO BE FOUND ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – Go to it. And like it. Please.

Pridham’s Goal – Video