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As the saying “opposites attract” goes, the Cal men’s soccer team couldn’t have had a more contrasting season to its upcoming opponents. The Bears are scheduled to face the California Baptist University Lancers at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Edwards Stadium.

With a 0-1-3 record, the blue and gold are going to need a lot more than pure luck if they want to secure their first win of the season. The Lancers are currently boasting a strong 3-1-0 record so far, having won against San Diego, Gonzaga and St. Thomas.

If there is any hope for a positive result in the Bears’ favor, it would be the fact that the only match CBU has lost was on the road — against UC Santa Barbara. Cal has only had one home game, against Villanova, which ultimately ended in a tie. This home-game advantage is the glimmer of hope the Bears have to secure a win.

Over the weekend, Cal paid a visit to two UCs down south, Irvine and San Diego. The last time the Bears faced a UC in southern California was during the preseason, against Riverside. Unfortunately for Cal, the massive 4-0 victory did not repeat itself this weekend.

During the final minutes of the first half of the match against the UC Irvine Anteaters, forward Nate Carrasco scored the first goal of the game. Carrasco, a junior from Sacramento, had only had one assist so far this season, prior to the Irvine game.

Just the Bears’ luck, the Anteaters fought back, and in the last four seconds of regular time sophomore forward Jake Means scored an equalizer for Irvine.

One player that deserves mentioning from this game is goalkeeper Collin Travasos. Travasos, a redshirt junior from Encinitas, saved Cal from bearing a loss after he successfully saved five attempts over the course of the game.

More recently, on Sunday, the Bears encountered the UC San Diego Tritons. Despite a successful penalty kick by San Diego senior Alessandro Allen in the 70th minute, Cal came back within one minute when senior forward Fahmi Ibrahim scored an equalizer. This point marked Fahmi’s second goal of the regular season, making him the leading scorer of the team so far.

Just as it always does, history repeated itself, and the Bears left southern California with two more ties to add onto their dissatisfying record.

For the upcoming Lancer game, there are a couple of players that may keep the Bears on their toes. The list includes Bryan Iliohan, a senior forward originally from Holland. Iliohan has already scored twice along with one assist, and has recently been selected by the Western Athletic Conference as the Offensive Player of the Week.

Another force Cal has to be on the lookout for is junior Luis Mueller. Mueller, a striker from Germany, is also leading the team in goals, having scored and assisted twice in the past four games for the Lancers.

Although the possibility of a victory seems slim, the Bears would especially benefit from a win before its games in the upcoming weeks. Later this month, the blue and gold are facing both No. 2 Stanford and No. 15 UCLA. Given the scope of talent from these two teams, it would be in Cal’s best interest to gain confidence before going up against these ranked teams.

Although CBU seems more favored to win, with the combination of the Bears’ current record and the Lancer’s inability to successfully perform on the road, this weekend can end up going either way.

Madison Lee covers men’s soccer. Contact her at [email protected] .

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