Cal State Fullerton at UC Santa Barbara
Wednesday, Nov. 9 | 7 P.M. PT
Harder Stadium | Santa Barbara, CA
Live Stats: ucsbgauchos.com
Live Stream: ucsbgauchos.com
Series: UCSB leads 31-24-3
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Cal State Fullerton's men's soccer squad travels to UC Santa Barabara for the first time since they won the Big West Tournament last season to battle the Gauchos in the semifinals of the conference tourney at Harder Stadium on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PT.
RUNDOWN at UC Santa Barbara:
THE BASICS: After defeating the Aggies of UC Davis in a shootout on Saturday night, the Titans will battle UC Santa Barbara at Harder Stadium on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. PT in the semifinals of the Big West Men's Soccer Tournament.
MATCHUP HISTORY: This will be the second consecutive year that Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara will meet in the Big West Tournament at Harder Stadium. In last year's thriller, defender Mitchell Bell netted a goal in the 51st minute and goalkeeper David Elias made five saves to give the Titans back-to-back conference tournament titles. with a 1-0 victory at UCSB in the final. The Gauchos would get some payback this season when they came to Titan Stadium and defeated Fullerton (2-1) in overtime on Oct. 1, thanks to a Kevin Feucht goal in the 92nd minute. Overall, UCSB leads the all-time series between the two teams (24-31-3) and have won seven of the past 10 matches.
QUICK RECAP: The Cal State Fullerton men's soccer squad defeated UC Davis in a penalty shootout, 1-1 (5-3) at Titan Stadium on Saturday night in the first round of the Big West Men's Soccer Tournament. Michael Lopez got the scoring started for the Titans as he netted his first goal of the season in the 12th minute with a finesse strike that went over the keeper's head to give CSUF an early 1-0 advantage. UC Davis' Noah Wilson didn't let the Fullerton lead last too long though as the forward took a nice pass from Kristian Heptner and put his shot past a charging David Elias to get the Aggies the equalizer in the 21st minute and tie the match at one. After a scoreless second half an two overtime periods, the match was going to be decided by a shootout. Nicolo D'Amato put the first penalty in the back of the net to give the Titans the momentum early in the shootout. Next, CSUF goalkeeper Elias made a diving save to his right to prevent UC Davis from knotting the shootout score. After three more balls in the back of the net for Fullerton, Diego Sanchez lined up and put his shot into the bottom left corner of the net to put the Titans past the Aggies and into the semifinals of the Big West Tournament.
FINAL FOUR BECOMING A HABIT: With the victory over the Aggies in the first round, the Titans advance to the semifinals of the Big West Men's Soccer Tournament for the third consecutive year and the fifth time in program history. Fullerton joins UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine as the only other programs in the Big West to have three-straight semifinals appearances in the conference tournament.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
-CSUF's Diego Sanchez (MF, Jr.): After netting the winning penalty in the shootout on Saturday, Diego Sanchez continues to produce in the Big West Men's Soccer Tournament as the junior scored two goals in the semifinal match against Cal Poly last season at Titan Stadium. So look for Sanchez to keep his tournament magic coming off the bench for the Titans.
-CSUF's Alex Heilmann (F, Sr.): This season has been a special one for Titan forward Alex Heilmann who made the switch to forward for the first time in his career this summer after playing defender. The La Habra native currently leads the Big West in goals scored (11) and points (24).
FINISHING STRONG
Since losing to UC Davis on Oct. 8, the Cal State Fullerton men's soccer squad has gone unbeaten in its last eight matches that date all the way back to Oct. 12 at CSUN. The streak includes four victories, three ties and one shootout victory. Two wins came against then Big West South Division leader UC Riverside as Jacob Perez' goal in the 76th minute lifted the Titans over the Highlanders at Titan Stadium. Meanwhile, conference leading goal scorer Alex Heilmann netted an early goal at UCR to give Fullerton two key wins over the Highlanders. The Titans also defeated UC Irvine and San Diego with a pair of 3-1 victories. The Titans did draw important road points at CSUN and at UC Irvine to secure second place in the South Division. In the first round of the tournament, Fullerton faced three seed UC Davis at Titan Stadium and itself tied with the Aggies through 110 minutes and needed a shootout to determine a winner. Nicolo D'Amato, Corentin Ohlmann, Robert Coronado, Alex Heilmann and Diego Sanchez went perfect in the shootout to give Fullerton a spot in the semifinals at UCSB.
COACH KUNTZ'S DOMINANCE IN BIG WEST
Dating back to his tenure at UC Irvine, Titan head coach George Kuntz has flat out dominated the Big West Men's Soccer Tournament since it started in 2008. Kuntz has won six of the first eight conference tournament titles, including his last two coming with the Titans. While at UCI, Kuntz won the first two tournament titles in Big West history with UC Irvine in 2008 & 2009. The 2009 Big West Tournament MVP, Carlos Aguilar, is currently on the Titans coaching staff as an asisstant coach. Overall, the 28-year soccer coach holds a Big West Tournament record of 12-1-2, which is a winning percentage of .923. His only tournament loss came against Cal State Fullerton back in 2010. Besides that, Kuntz has won both draws in his career as the Titans defeated UC Irvine in penalty kicks (3-2) in the 2014 final. The other happened this past Saturday when the Titans went a perfect 5-for-5 on penalty kicks to beat UC Davis in the shootout (5-3). So when tournament time is approaching make sure to keep an eye on the Titans because with coach Kuntz at the helm they should be considered contenders for the crown each year.
TITANS IN THE TOURNAMENT
Over the last two seasons, the Titans have flipped a switch when it comes to tournament time as Fullerton has won two consecutive Big West Men's Soccer Tournament titles. In 2015, the Titans received a bye in the first round of the conference tournament and hosted Cal Poly in the semifinals. The Mustangs scored first in the 29th minute, but Fullerton went on to net three-straight goals to defeat Cal Poly, 3-1. In the championship, CSUF traveled to Santa Barbara to take on the Gauchos. The Titans got a goal early in the second half from Mitchell Bell to put themselves on top and David Elias did the rest from the as the CSUF goalkeeper made six saves and prevented the Gaucho attack from netting a goal even though they put up 22 shots that night. Elias' incredible performance earned him the Big West Tournament MVP. The last two years have been special for the Titans as they've gone undefeated in the tournament since George Kuntz took the helm of the program. And this year's squad will look to keep the magic going as they appear to be in excellent form entering the tournament.
EIGHT TITANS EARN CONFERENCE HONORS
The Cal State Fullerton men's soccer program continues to add to its list of prestigious conference honors as eight Titans earned All-Big West honors, the conference announced on Wednesday. Alex Heilmann and Ricardo Covarrubias headline the all-conference nods for the Titans as they were named to the All-Big West first team. The Fullerton duo becomes the first pair of Titans to be named to the conference first team since 2012. Sophomore Ross McPhie earned his first career All-Big West honor as he was named to the second team after a strong season in the Fullerton midfield. For the third consecutive season, a Titan freshman was named to the All-Big West Freshman team as Rei Dorwart received the conference honor. The forward currently has two assists and seven shots on goal in his freshman campaign. Ruben Alvarez, Ronaldo Pineda, Robert Coronado and David Elias each received All-Big West honorable mention nods. Coronado, Pineda and Elias each received their second career All-Big West honorable mention honors after strong seasons.
KUNTZ REACHES 350 MARK
Fullerton men's soccer coach George Kuntz continues to add to his stellar coaching legacy this season as he reached the 350 win mark with a 1-0 road win over UC Riverside on Oct. 22. Kuntz also collected his 75th Big West victory at the same time. Currently, Kuntz has a steady lead when it comes to all-time career victories as the Titan head coach leads UC Santa Barbara's Tim Vom Steeg by 110 wins. Coach Kuntz has also been outstanding when tournament times come around as he has a 13-1 career record in the Big West Tournament and is currently undefeated in the conference tournament (5-0) since taking the helm at Fullerton back in 2014.
FULLERTONTITANS.COM
Make sure to visit the official site of Cal State Fullerton Athletics (FullertonTitans.com) for the latest news, scores, stats and photos from every CSUF event.
TICKETS
The Cal State Fullerton Athletics Ticket Office is located in the Titan House off of Gymnasium Drive on the northeast side of Titan Gym. Ticket purchases can be made in person at the Ticket Office, over the phone, or online. Those interested in the best available tickets should visit FullertonTitans.com at least 24 hours prior to any athletic sporting event.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL
Make sure to follow @CSUFMensSoccer on Twitter and like the Cal State Fullerton Men's Soccer page on Facebook to keep up with the Titans. Also, make sure to give a follow to @FullertonTitans on Twitter and Snapchat.
