At the Paso Robles Horse Park, the Cal Poly men’s soccer team defeated Fresno Pacific 4-0 Wednesday evening in their final tune-up before kicking off the season next Friday in Indiana. 

Three Stars

Christian Enriquez is a sophomore, but he’ll be Cal Poly soccer’s field general from the midfield this season. By Owen Main

Sophomore midfielder Christian Enriquez started the scoring within the first few minutes. He collected a bouncing ball just outside the box and calmly slotted it past the Sunbird keeper, who was caught in no man’s land about five yards away.

Enriquez helped Cal Poly double their lead a few minutes later, playing a no-look through ball to junior college transfer forward Sean Goode. Goode did what he’s done every time I’ve seen him — that is score on his chances. 

Senior Kaba Alkebulan subbed into the game late in the first half and made an immediate impact with his speed. Kaba took a ball over the top down the left side, turned in and right footed it into the goal. Just after halftime, Alkebulan doubled up, scoring a pretty similar goal. 

Enriquez and Kaba are a clear one and two. Eddie Melgoza was my number three. Melgoza started in central midfield and led the back line to a clean sheet. Other defenders did rotate in and out, but Melgoza seems to be settling into a central defender role after playing on the left side most of his freshman year. 

Hoosier-bound

Cal Poly starts their season against two top-10 teams at a tournament in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame. First, they’ll face #7 Indiana on Friday August 25th, followed by a match the following Sunday vs. the hosts — #10 Notre Dame. Their opening road trip also features games at the Big East’s Georgetown and #6 Maryland. 

Decent results in those four road games should give the Mustangs the benefit of the doubt for an NCAA bid if they’re on the bubble. Playing good teams early is also a great way to prepare for Big West play.

Mustangs tabbed third in the Big West North

Cal Poly was tabbed today to finish third in the Big West North in the conference’s preseason poll released today. Since there are only four teams in the conference’s North Division, being picked third isn’t great. 

If you look at last season’s performance, thinking of Cal Poly as a third place team in the division might be reasonable. The Mustangs have nearly 20 new players on their roster as they try to bounce back from (5-9-3) overall record (3-5-2 in Big West play).

Predictably, UCSB was pegged as the favorite in the North. UC Davis was picked second, followed by Cal Poly and Sacramento State. Cal State Northridge was picked first in the South followed by Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, and UC Irvine. 

Photos by Owen Main. To view the entire gallery, click here.

Cal Poly men’s soccer starts their season tomorrow with an exhibition against Fresno Pacific. That’s no big deal — they’ve played the Sunbirds to open the season before. What is different is that the game will be played in Paso Robles.

At a Horse Park. 

The Paso Robles Horse Park, according to its website, opened in 2015 as a venue for equestrian competitions. Its main field — presumably where the match will be played — is specially engineered for horses. It has synthetic material woven into the grass to provide a more firm base for horses to jump and land on. From the website:

“The Fairway Field measures 300 feet by 500 feet and it is not your ordinary grass field. A sophisticated drainage system sits under eight inches of a specially prepared base comprised of sand and screened native soil designed by a soils engineer. Within this, polypropylene fibers were cultivated into the top four inches of the base. These fibers open up and bind with the soil along with the roots of the grass to form a more resilient footing for the various jumping and athletic events.”

So, on the one hand, Cal Poly should be able to play on a much wider surface than they’re accustomed to at home (Did you know soccer fields are all different sizes? It’s true. The width of a field can literally DOUBLE, depending on where you play). This wider field should help as Cal Poly goes back east to play on fields much wider than the Spanos surface. 

Kaba Alkebulan and the Cal Poly men’s soccer team kick off their season on Wednesday night in Paso Robles. By Owen Main

Also, the field could be a little different than what they’re used to. We know the tougher turf is better for horses, but will it effect the playability of the surface itself? 

Later in the season (September 23rd), the Mustangs will play again at the Paso Robles Horse Park on a football home game day. That game, against Cal State Bakersfield, will not be an exhibition. I’ll need to check when the last time the Mustangs played a home soccer match that counted and that wasn’t at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. 

I’ll be at the game on Wednesday night in Paso Robles. It’s the last opportunity to see Steve Sampson’s team “at home” until September 10th, when they host Saint Mary’s. It’s hard to believe, but this is Sampson’s third season at the helm of the Cal Poly program. 

Game time: 5:00pm

Location: Paso Robles Horse Park