SAN DIEGO – Santa Clara men's soccer lost 4-2 against San Diego in a West Coast Conference road game on Saturday night, playing catchup for much of the game.  The Toreros scored two goals in each half and took the lead for good in the 39^th minute on Kevin Pena's goal.

"We need to play some of our best soccer of the year right now and we didn't," said Broncos head coach Cam Rast.  "We weren't sharp enough and we kept making mistakes and because of that, it led to the result we had." 

Tied 1-all late in the first half, Pena one-timed a shot with his right foot inside the six on a centering pass from Cesar Bahena to put the Toreros (4-4-6, 2-0-1 WCC) up 2-1.

Pena's goal came after the Broncos (3-4-4, 0-1-2 WCC) got the equalizer from Adem Hamdaoua on a free kick in the 19^th minute to knot the game up at 1-all.  Hamdaoua buried the kick to the top left corner from about 25 yards out to beat San Diego goalkeeper Jason Dubrovich.

"When you don't come out as sharp as you need to be and make a mistake like we did to concede that first goal, that's tough because it's not the level that we're capable of playing," said Rast in reference to the non-forced turnover the Broncos gave up at midfield that led to the game's first goal by Oshea Foster in the 15th minute.  

Trailing 2-1 at the intermission, Santa Clara looked to get another equalizer, however, the Toreros extended its lead to 3-1 in the 54^th minute when Bahena blasted a shot from the right side just inside the 18-yard box past the diving Felix Schaefer to the far post. 

Santa Clara was able to cut the deficit to 3-2 when Joshua Dabora converted on a penalty kick given on a handball by the USD defender in the 74^th minute.

However, San Diego had the answer once again as just a minute and a half later, they pushed the lead out back to two goals on Simon Duus Muller's goal for the final goal of the evening. 

There were 33 shots total between the two squads with the Toreros holding a 20-13 edge including 9-7 for shots on goal.  

NOTES

• Santa Clara is now 35-16-5 all-time against San Diego. 

HIGHLIGHTS

19' | Hamdaoua answers!

SCU 1 - USD 1#StampedeTogether pic.twitter.com/32LoB1dOjh

— Santa Clara Men's Soccer (@SCUBroncoSoccer) October 23, 2022

74' | Dabora nails the penalty kick to cut the deficit to 3-2!!
Lets gooooo!!!

USD 3 - SCU 2 #StampedeTogether pic.twitter.com/j7i0VzhcIu

— Santa Clara Men's Soccer (@SCUBroncoSoccer) October 23, 2022

NEXT UP
The Broncos have a quick turnaround with a midweek contest at San Francisco on Wednesday.  Kickoff is at 7 p.m.  

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