University of San Diego\u2019s men\u2019s soccer team 1-0 in overtime<\/a> before a record soccer turnout at Torero Stadium in the third round of last year\u2019s NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\nIn retrospect, Toreros coach Brian Quinn called the Toreros\u2019 season-ending loss \u201cbittersweet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no fun losing like that,\u201d Quinn said Monday. \u201cBut Vermont went on to win the national championship. And the memory of that loss has carried over with our players. They want to go farther this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think we can. We\u2019re a legitimate top-10 team in the country. We\u2019re right there. We\u2019re in line for a NCAA berth. The immediate goal is to secure a first-round bye.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Toreros could advance in 2025 as something other than the West Coast Conference champion for the first time in four seasons. Portland, which is currently ranked fifth in the nation, beat the 15th-ranked Toreros two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cPortland is a legitimate top-five team,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cBut we out-played them most of the game. Portland\u2019s first goal came when we had a player off the field with an injury. That was a game that, upon reflection, disappointed us with the result but extremely pleased us with the performance. That is soccer. It happens many times where you don\u2019t get the result you deserve. You need a little break.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Toreros responded with a pair of 3-0 WCC victories over Loyola Marymount and Seattle last week to improve to 9-2-3 on the season and 3-1-1 in conference play. USD\u2019s only losses are to No. 15 Duke in the season opener in North Carolina and the No. 5 Pilots. USD has beaten three other Top-25 teams \u2013 two of those wins coming on the road.<\/p>\n
USD plays one of the toughest schedules in the country while in a conference with four teams that received top-20 votes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of those good teams that other teams prepare for,\u201d said Quinn. \u201cSince I\u2019ve been here (eight seasons), this is the most depth we\u2019ve had. It\u2019s depth and balance. We have six or seven guys who can score. We have a lot of attacking options. The guys on defense have been stellar. And we have a corps of midfielders who can play at a very high tempo.\u201d<\/p>\n
USD runs a 3-5-2 alignment in front of goalkeeper Lucca Adams, a sophomore from Brazil who has a 0.45 goals-against average with five shutouts in nine games and has already been named the WCC Defensive Player of the Week twice this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been really good on defense partially because Lucca does a great job communicating with us,\u201d said center back Josh Martrinez. \u201cHe lets us know what the options are as he sees things developing. We\u2019re very calm on the ball and when under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez was a midfielder who volunteered to move to the middle of the defense when Mathias Bauer was injured. Martinez plays between seniors Ethan Warne and Owen Walz.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not missed a beat,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n
Bauer is one of five Toreros regulars who have missed considerable time due to injuries. That list includes 2024 scoring leader Samy Kanaan, a senior from Rancho Bernardo High School, and goalkeeper Adam Salama who has a 1.40 GAA in five games.<\/p>\n
Leading the offense this season are forwards Cesar Bahena, a senior out of Escondido High School, and junior Steven Ramirez. Bahena has five goals and three assists. Ramirez has six goals and an assist.<\/p>\n
\u201cRamirez and I complement each other,\u201d said Bahena. \u201cSteven is more of a be-in-the-right-place finisher. I like being more on top of the ball and creating. The best thing is we know each other\u2019s strengths and weaknesses. The same goes for Samy when he\u2019s in there. Having only two forwards requires us to do a lot more running.\u00a0 But we\u2019re already in sync when the midfielders have the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore Iain Wagner (St. Augustine High School) is the leading scorer in the midfield with five goals and three assists. But junior Noah James (Poway High School), sophomore Luca Fava and junior Oliver Rhoades have started all 14 games in the midfield, while senior Vicente Ayala and Wagner have 10 starts apiece.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the Toreros are looking to go deeper in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are 100% made for a playoff run,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cWe\u2019re super deep. We didn\u2019t have that depth the first couple years I was here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident we can win,\u201d said Bahena. \u201cI loved how aggressive we were during the second half in Portland. There is more of a sense of us being in control when we play. We\u2019re confident that we can win these games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every week during the school year, U-T contributor Bill Center highlights one San Diego college team that\u2019s making strides on and off the field. To nominate a team, email wcenter27@gmail.com.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the time, it seemed like a disastrous upset. Visiting Vermont defeated the University of San Diego\u2019s men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,127,3425],"class_list":{"0":"post-16310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-toreros"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}