Torero Athletics: Soccer Honors McFadden, Defeats UCLA; Football's Lawrence Throws 6 TD Passes

The University of San Diego men’s soccer team ensured that Sunday’s Seamus McFadden Night ended in victory by delivering a dominating performance in a 3-1 win against UCLA at Torero Stadium.

The Toreros (8-3-2) celebrated its 39-year head coach during pregame and halftime ceremonies, then honored him with an impressive winning performance in front of 2,539 fans.

“I’m just a coach,” said McFadden, who will step down as head coach at the conclusion of this season. “I’ve tried to be a good role model and mold kids by giving them an opportunity. That’s how I’ve lived my life.”

McFadden was celebrated in a special on-campus event on Saturday night. He was honored prior to Sunday’s game when the Irish national anthem was performed. McFadden was presented with a framed “39” USD soccer jersey at halftime while surrounded by USD men’s soccer alumni and he was given a proclamation by the city of San Diego for Seamus McFadden Day. Also, the first 1,000 fans received a McFadden bobblehead.

But Sunday’s game was McFadden’s true focus. The victory extended USD’s unbeaten streak to seven games and completed a 4-0 homestand. USD still have four more WCC games to play and are in the hunt for the conference title and a playoff berth.

Torero Aaron Frey scored the first goal of his collegiate career in the 44th minute, gathering a loose ball off a corner kick and smashing a left-footed shot into the top right corner of the goal. Djordje Babic added the game-winner in the 50th minute, powering a shot from the center of the field eight yards out into the lower right corner of the goal. Freddy Polzer contributed a solid individual effort to force an own goal by UCLA in the 59th minute. 

“We got a timely goal at the end of the first half,” said McFadden. “They had a stretch there where they were very good and on top of us. We’ve been scoring timely goals and defending really well as a group. I was pleased for the boys.” 

USD’s defense — consisting of Patric Krall, Henry Lander, Frey and Aidan Marmion — played excellent and its only blemish was a fortunate Bruins (6-6-1) rebound in the 89th minute.

Thomas Olsen made three saves in goal and was active off his line to alleviate threats from crosses and high balls. 

”We’re hard to break down. We’re not giving goals away and that’s been key for us,” said McFadden. 

Miguel Berry was electric up top for the Toreros and assisted on the game-winning goal. It was his team-leading fourth assist of the season. Berry has registered at least one point in six of the past seven games. 

This Week: USD men’s soccer plays at Pacific, Friday, 7 p.m. and at Saint Mary’s, Sunday, 2 p.m. 

Football

Anthony Lawrence tossed a personal-best six touchdowns and the defense turned in a dominating day as San Diego collected its 17th consecutive Pioneer Football League victory, a 63-10 win against host Jacksonville. USD improved to 5-2 overall and 4-0 in PFL play. 

Lawrence, who was named the PFL Offensive Player of the Week, completed 18-of-24 passes for 268 yards. His touchdown passes were two apiece to Nate Loya (24 and 32 yards), Ross Dwelley (11 and 1) and Justin Priest (20 and 28). Lawrence’s six touchdown passes were one off the Toreros’ record of seven, mark set by Josh Johnson (2005) and Eric Rasmussen (2002), both against Valparaiso. 

Dwelley was Lawrence’s top target of the day, as he caught six passes for 81 yards. Michael Bandy had five catches for 69 yards and Priest had four receptions for 62 yards. Loya’s only catches were both for touchdowns. 

The Toreros also ran for three scores, one each by Joseph Binda, Jordan Charles and Reid Sinnett. Charles was USD’s leading rusher with five carries for 80 yards, highlighted by his 63-yard touchdown run. 

The Toreros, who accumulated 502 yards of total offense, scored at least two touchdowns each quarter, including 21 points in the second quarter for a 35-0 at halftime. 

Defensively, USD held Jacksonville to 235 yards of total offense. Nickelback Max Michaels and linebacker Marcus Vaivao each had eight tackles, cornerback David Tolbert had five stops and a fumble recovery and cornerback Kishan Patel had an interception. The Toreros did not record a quarterback sack, meaning defensive end Jonathan Petersen remains one sack shy of becoming USD’s all-time leader in that category. 

This Week: USD football plays Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., Saturday at 10 a.m. (Pacific). 

Women’s Volleyball

Senior Jayden Kennedy and junior Addie Picha provided the power as the women’s volleyball team recorded a pair of West Coast Conference road match victories at Loyola Marymount on Oct. 19 and then at Pepperdine on Oct. 21. 

Kennedy matched her season high of 20 kills to lead the No. 18-ranked Toreros to a 3-2 victory (25-20, 16-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-7) at Pepperdine. The win marked the Toreros’ (16-4 overall, 9-1 WCC) sixth straight victory and the Waves became only the third team to extend USD to a fifth set this season. 

Picha had 14 kills (a team-high .321 hitting percentage) and six blocks, senior setter Kristen Gengenbacher contributed 53 assists and senior libero Lizzy Tardieu had 25 digs.

The Toreros’ consecutive set-winning streak was snapped at 14 when Pepperdine won the second set. 

In a 3-0 sweep of Loyola Marymount, Kennedy and Picha both had 13 kills and Kaity Edwards added 12 kills and three blocks to lead USD to its 13th match sweep of the season. USD dominated play with a hitting percentage of .311. 

Gengenbacher, Tardeiu and Tanyel Merve combined to produce 25 digs in the victory. 

This Week: USD women’s volleyball plays at No. 8 BYU, Friday, 6 p.m. 

Women’s Soccer

The USD women’s soccer team’s momentum in West Coast Conference play experienced an initial high on Oct. 19 with a 3-2 win over Loyola Marymount to extend its win streak to five. But on Oct. 21, Senior Night for USD’s Courtney Coate, Tara Meier and Ally Ocon, No. 13-ranked Pepperdine spoiled the party with a 3-0 victory. The Waves (12-2-2 overall, 6-0 WCC) are now in sole possession of first place in the WCC standings. 

The Toreros are 6-9 overall and 4-1 in WCC play under first-year coach Louise Lieberman. 

Against LMU on Thursday, Kelsi Dantu scored two penalty-kick goals and Summer Mason tallied her eighth goal of the season for USD. Dantu is second on the team with four goals. 

Dantu created the first penalty kick opportunity just 3:32 into the game. She carried with pace into the penalty box and had her legs clipped from behind. She stepped to the spot and buried a shot to the lower left corner of the goal. Natalie Copenhaver created the second penalty kick opportunity for the Toreros, dribbling between two Lions before being taken down in the 61st minute. Dantu stepped to the spot for a second time and slotted a perfectly-placed shot to the bottom right corner of the goal. 

Mason’s goal was set up by Halle Walls, who sent a through-ball from the Toreros’ own half through the center of the field. Mason blew by a pair of defenders, beat LMU’s goalkeeper to the 50-50 ball and tapped in a shot to the center of the goal. Mason has scored six goals during the Toreros five-game winning-streak. 

In Saturday’s loss, Pepperdine’s scoring flurry came between the 22nd and 34th minute marks. USD’s Michel played well in goal despite giving up the three goals. She came off her line well on crosses and made seven saves. She ran into tough luck on each Pepperdine goal as two were on one-on-ones and the other was created on an unfortunate ricochet. 

The Toreros had their chances, generating eight shots and holding a 12-1 advantage in corner kicks. USD hit the crossbar twice on two corner kick opportunities at the start of both halves. 

This Week: USD women’s soccer play at Portland, Thursday at 7 p.m., and then at Gonzaga, Saturday at 7 p.m. A postponed WCC game, USD at Santa Clara, has been rescheduled for Nov. 2 at a time to be determined. 

Cross Country

The USD men and women’s cross-country teams will compete in the West Coast Conference Championships this Friday morning. 

The WCC Championship meets, hosted by the University of San Francisco, will take place on a course located on the Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland, Calif. Racing begins at 9 a.m. 

Top runners for USD heading into the WCC meet on the men’s side are seniors Liam Burke, Max Pedrotti, TJ Hodges and Zach Hinz and sophomore Patrick Bruce. Top Torero women runners are freshman Hannah Rasmussen, redshirt freshman Madison Lambros, sophomore Hope McLaughlin, senior Julie Giannini and freshmen Maggie Scholle, Caitlin Stoner and Natalie North-Cole. 

Keep up with all USD Athletics news, scores and information by visiting the website and following the Toreros on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.