Historic season concludes for Cal Poly Men’s Soccer
The Cal Poly Men’s Soccer team had been unable to clinch a regular season conference title since their inception into the NCAA in 1967. But this season, program history was made. For the first time ever, Cal Poly Men’s Soccer took first place in the Big West Regular Season rankings.
The team finished 7-4-7 overall and 4-1-4 in the Big West, which is one of their most dominant records in over ten years. Despite opening up non-conference play with four losses and a tie, the Mustangs ended the regular season with only one conference loss and were unbeaten at home.
Multiple players on the team were recognized on a conference level for their outstanding performances in their respective positions. Goalkeeper Nicky McCune won Big West Goalkeeper of the Year, posting a .616 goals against average, and a .833 save percentage.
McCune was honored to receive this award but said he felt a big reason why he was named Big West Goalkeeper of the Year was due to his star-studded back defensive line.
“Yeah it feels great but also at the same time it’s not just me out there, my back four has been absolutely amazing,” he said. “You know, Joaq (Joaquin Torres), Parker (Parker Owens), Nico (Nico Baltazar) and Jack (Jack Muio) have all been super dominant back there and making my job easy.”
McCune had eight shutouts on the season. On the offensive side of things, redshirt freshman Quinn Mahoney set the bar high for his collegiate soccer career, winning Big West Freshman of the Year.
“Winning that award meant a lot to me because that was one of my goals coming into college, I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to win it because of last year and being injured,” Mahoney said.
He had his eyes on this accolade since the moment he committed to Cal Poly, but after suffering a head injury prior to his true freshman season the award was far out of reach as doctors recommended that he stop playing soccer for good.
But after going through recovery and relying on support from friends, family and teammates, he achieved his long-time goal.
Two years ago, Cal Poly brought in a new head coach, hoping to turn the tides of the program and reach new heights. Men’s soccer head coach Ogie Kennedy just finished his second season in charge of the program.
He was previously the head coach at Fort Lewis College at the division two level and an assistant coach at Stanford University. One of Coach Kennedy’s goals upon his arrival at Cal Poly was to build culture amongst the team.
“Yeah I would say probably the biggest overarching thing has been the culture we’ve been trying to build with the guys, I think that’s what we’ve probably focused most of our time on,” Kennedy said. “You know, the x’s and o’s and the soccer piece are great but I think culture is really important to us, so we’ve set some standards with our culture and I think the guys have really bought into that and I think we’re seeing the rewards of that on the field as well and how hard they’re working.”
After two years with the Mustangs, not only did Kennedy lead the team to their first ever regular season Big West title, but he also won Big West Coach of the Year.
From a mixture of fresh leadership, dedicated players and a team full of motivation and culture, history was made for Cal Poly Men’s Soccer this season.
