USD’s tough early men’s soccer schedule continues vs. SDSU at Snapdragon Stadium

Coach Brian Quinn returned most of a USD men’s soccer team that went 15-3-2 and won a pair of games in the NCAA Tournament before exiting against eventual champion Vermont on a penalty kick in overtime. The Toreros entered 2025 ranked No. 10 nationally in the preseason poll.

Complacency?

Quinn won’t allow it.

He put together arguably — or on second glance, maybe not arguably — the toughest early schedule in the nation, sending his team on the road for its first four games: the first three against ranked opposition, the first two on the East Coast and the third a mile high in Denver.

The travel gets easier Monday night, a short trip down Friars Road to Snapdragon Stadium, but the opponent does not: a hungry San Diego State team that won the WAC regular-season title last season and is bent on revenge from a 3-0 loss at USD that contributed to keeping the Aztecs out of the NCAA Tournament.

Playing away at No. 15 Duke, No. 20 Furman and No. 21 Denver was hard. Monday’s 5 p.m. kickoff might be even harder.

“One hundred percent,” Quinn said. “That’s the beauty of having a rivalry.”

USD then plays the next five at Torero Stadium, but even those aren’t gimmes. The first two are Cal Baptist and UC Santa Barbara, teams that historically have given them problems, followed by No. 19 Kansas City.

That, however, tells you all need to know about what sort of team Quinn thinks he has. You’re not subjecting a lesser group to this opening gauntlet.

Quinn is good friends with SDSU basketball coach Brian Dutcher, who often talks about how opponents raise their level against the Aztecs.

“I was thinking about how Dutcher says everyone has a target on them,” Quinn said, “that the team you see on film is not the team you’re going to see on the field. It’s a new feeling for us, but we’ve earned that respect. Everyone is giving us their best game. We’ve embraced that. It’s been a three-year process to get there, and we don’t want to let that slip away.”

It hasn’t. The Toreros (1-1-1) lost 2-1 at Duke, then managed a 0-0 tie at Furman despite a pair of red cards that had them playing with nine men for the final 15 minutes and fell out of the rankings. They recovered Thursday by twice coming from behind for a 3-2 win in altitude at Denver despite missing two starters serving red-card suspensions and third from injury.

The idea is better competition now means better preparation for the NCAA Tournament later.

“The games at Duke and Furman helped us win that game at Denver, set us up for that performance,” Quinn said.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of a 1-1-1 start is it’s come without a goal from star forwards (and childhood buddies) Samy Kanaan and Cesar Bahena, who combined for 17 last season.

The two most notable losses from the Sweet 16 roster are goalkeeper Donovan Parisian, who was drafted by the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer; and central midfielder Jack Sandmeyer, a Saint Augustine High School alum who was so grateful to Quinn for unearthing him from a walk-on tryout (after he was cut from USD’s club soccer team) that he bolted to North Carolina for an NIL bag.

The loss of Sandmeyer was aggravated by a preseason knee injury to Vicente Ayala, although Western Michigan transfer (and Poway High School alum) Noah James has emerged as a physical force in midfield and Quinn says Ayala is “really, really close” to returning. The new goalkeeper is Rider transfer Adam Salama from Israel. First team all-conference defender Ethan Warne from England is back after being granted an extra year of eligibility because he spent a year in junior college.

The Aztecs (2-1) opened with a 2-0 loss at No. 17 Virginia followed by a 2-0 win at Howard and 4-0 win Thursday on the SDSU Sports Deck against NAIA Life Pacific behind a pair of goals from Israel Carillo Perez. With WAC preseason defender of the year Cianole Nguepissi and five other starters back, they are picked to repeat as conference champion in the coaches’ poll.

This is their fourth annual game at Snapdragon Stadium, setting program attendance records in the previous three. Last year’s 3-3 tie against UC Davis drew an announced crowd of 3,802, surpassing the 3,632 from a 1-1 tie against USD in 2023.

Tickets for Monday start at $10.

The crosstown rivals are playing regularly again after some years where they avoided one another. Quinn has proposed playing even more often, twice per season, home and away, with aggregate scores followed by a penalty shootout if necessary and a trophy for the annual champion.

“The argument against is that it can hurt you,” Quinn said. “And maybe it does. At the end of the year, if USD or State are on the (NCAA Tournament) bubble and they’re only going to take one from the West Coast, then obviously those scores can make a difference. I’m more focused on, let’s create a vibe in the community and see where it goes.”