Men’s soccer loses rivalry match

Toreros fall to San Diego State University 2-0 in hard-fought, physical game

Eric Boose/Contributor/The USD Vista

The game that unfolded at Torero Stadium on Friday night defied nearly all expectations of the USD men’s soccer team. The Toreros, who came into the game after defeating Gonzaga and holding No. 7 Portland to a tie on the road, lost 2-0 to the San Diego State Aztecs in a match dominated by a physical style of play which seemed unfamiliar to the Toreros. The game featured rapid momentum shifts, hard collisions, a penalty kick, and a shoving match between the cross-town rivals.

An early Aztec goal doomed the Toreros, as defender Aaron Frey misplayed the ball in the fourth minute, allowing SDSU forward Damian German an open shot on goal, which German placed beyond USD goalkeeper Matt Wiher. 

“Mistakes happen in soccer, it’s just part of the game,” defender Josiah Benjamin said. “We hope that it’s not going to be a defensive error like that, but it just happens, so rallying wasn’t really an issue, we just had to keep going.”

After the goal, the tension between the two teams manifested in scrappy, physical play. Torero defender Till Stockmann was shown a yellow card for a collision only a minute after the goal, one of five players to be cautioned by referee Bernhard Hosu. 

“I feel like us giving that early goal up heated up that rivalry, heated up the intensity,” USD assistant coach Mike Nicholson said. “I don’t feel like the game was meant to be an overly aggressive game, but I think that the disappointment of an early goal got us on our heels a bit after feeling comfortable at the start.”

The rivalry between the teams culminated 20 minutes into the match, as an SDSU player tumbled to the ground on an Aztec corner kick, leading to multiple players exchanging shoves after Frey was pushed to the ground in retaliation. The scuffle resulted in both Frey and SDSU defender Dane Rozas being shown yellow cards. 

Soon after the scuffle, both teams settled down, and the game became much smoother. Suddenly, the teams went from trading shoves to trading chances. Josiah Benjamin had the Aztecs on their heels down the right hand side of the field, making multiple dangerous runs forward while still stifling SDSU’s attackers. The senior defender combined with midfielder Jimmy Ryan to create a scoring chance for the Toreros, but forward Miguel Berry’s headed shot went wide of the goal. 

At the other end, the Aztecs were hungry for a second goal. Benjamin made multiple defensive stops, including deflecting a shot away from USD’s goal. The Aztecs thought they had a second goal in the 35th minute as midfielder DJ Villegas tapped a cross into an empty net, but he was ruled offside. Seconds later, Wiher denied German from close range, SDSU’s last opportunity of the half.

Down only 1-0 at halftime, and having come within feet of scoring in the first half, the Toreros knew they were not out of the game by any means. 

“Everyone’s fired up, everyone knows, even if you’re an international player like me you know that bragging rights are on the line, so to play San Diego State is always a big deal,” Benjamin said. “Unfortunately, we had a little setback obviously with the early goal, but I’m sure everybody was still fired up, including me, so we go again, just keep going.”

The Toreros came out of halftime dominant, earning themselves five good scoring chances in the first 15 minutes of the second half while giving SDSU nearly nothing. While fullback Josiah Benjamin created chances on the right side for much of the first half, Torero fullback Till Stockmann tormented the Aztec defense down the left side to start the second. Stockmann provided two passes into the SDSU penalty area, but Berry could not put either one on target. 

For Nicholson, when Stockmann and Benjamin do well, the team does well.

“With our two fullbacks, Josiah’s very athletic and he’s good at driving at people, likewise with Till,” Nicholson said. “Till’s very fast, so we’re comfortable with our fullbacks getting into advanced positions to take people on. Whether it’s through speed or through individual dribbling, I think we like to get the ball wide, I think that’s where we get our success is balls out wide.” 

While the Toreros managed to get the ball out near the sideline, they struggled to create scoring chances from those wide positions. “We’ve just got to work on committing numbers to getting in the box,” Nicholson said. “There was a number of times that we had opportunities to score in the second half, we got crosses in and we didn’t have enough guys in the box.”

Luckily for Nicholson and the Toreros, Benjamin could not be happier than when he gets to attack. 

“I love to play like that,” Benjamin said. “I love taking on players one-on-one, I love defending one-on-one, I just love one-on-one plays in soccer.”

Despite Stockmann and Benjamin’s strong performances, SDSU managed to regain momentum, forcing Wiher to make a good save from close range an hour into the match. The Aztecs threatened for the rest of the second half, but could not generate another good chance until the 80th minute, when Wiher denied German in a one-on-one situation. 

As the match entered its closing stages, the physical play returned. With seven minutes remaining and still down only 1-0, the Toreros thought they had earned a penalty kick when forward Reuben Dass was tripped in the penalty area, but the referee waved away USD’s pleas. 

“I’d like to see the Reuben situation on camera to see whether there was more contact,” Nicholson said. “Obviously when it’s Reuben, we’re going to say ‘well that’s a penalty kick,’ and their coach is going to say ‘no it’s not,’ so it’s always going to be read separately by each team, so I’d like to see that.”

Referee Bernhard Hosu did award a penalty kick three minutes later, to SDSU. Frey brought down Aztecs midfielder Arturo Chavez, and the Aztecs’ captain Pablo Pelaez blasted the penalty kick into the bottom right corner to make the score 2-0. 

USD had one last chance to grab a goal, earning a free kick with two minutes left in the match. Unfortunately for the Toreros, Berry’s shot was headed away from goal and the match finished 2-0 to the visitors.

While losing was certainly frustrating, Nicholson emphasized growing as a team and moving forward for the rest of the season.

“Ultimately this game, from a cross-town rivalry point of view and playing at home, it was disappointing to lose,” Nicholson said. “It’s disappointing because Aaron Frey is going to miss the next game because of that yellow card there, that puts him at five, so he’ll miss the most important game on Friday because essentially, we have to win the conference to make the playoffs.”

USD currently sits in fifth place in the West Coast Conference, and faces the first-place Saint Mary’s Gaels in their next match. With a week between games, Nicholson says the team needs to focus on preparing for each individual opponent as the season goes on.

“I think we have to look at ourselves but also look at the opposition and try to figure out what they were doing well,” Nicholson said. “For example, I thought SDSU were more physical than us aerially, they won a lot of headers, and Saint Mary’s can pose that type of problem. So instead of just going we could have done better today, how can we improve on that, so that it doesn’t happen against Saint Mary’s.”

The Toreros host the Gaels on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Torero Stadium.