Bryan Koci / Staff Photographer

Forty-eight minutes into his third collegiate game for the San Diego State men’s soccer team, Devon Sandoval knew everything was going to be just fine.

The freshman forward could feel nothing but relief and joy as he witnessed the ball wrinkle the twine in the back of the net.

Less than a year ago, Sandoval was hurt on the field. He went up to play a ball with no one else around and as he came down, he heard a pop.

“When I landed all I heard was my foot pop,” Sandoval said. “I get an X-ray and it turns out I broke my foot. There was no real reason why it happened, it just happened. It was sort of like a freak accident.”

The broken foot took Sandoval out of commission for two months. He returned to his high school team and continued to play until the injury flared up again. It wasn’t thought to be serious at the time, so Sandoval continued to play. When the pain wouldn’t go away, he had his foot reevaluated and found that he had broken it again. Sandoval was then forced to have surgery for a screw to be placed in his foot. The surgery kept him off the field until midsummer.

“The first time I broke it I thought I would be OK,” Sandoval said. “The second time I broke it, it was really hard for me to stay positive. Without soccer I mean, there wasn’t a lot for me.”

He had a lot to overcome heading into training for SDSU: the injury itself, the time he missed on the field, and the mental aspect of not being 100 percent. The thought that he may never be the same crept into the back of his mind at times.

“We recruited Devon (Sandoval) during the first injury and never saw it as a real concern,” assistant coach Matt Hall said. “When it happened again we still had faith in him. We never thought it would end his career but we knew it was annoying and held him back. We did have to wait and see how he handled it physically and mentally.”

Sandoval went to work once he was cleared to practice and play again. He was on the field twice a week, working and training to be ready for this season.

“It’s incredibly tough to come back from injury in the college game,” redshirt senior tri-captain midfielder Jamel Wallace said. “I know from experience that it takes a lot out of you mentally not just physically. And sitting out three or four days you lose a step in this game, but you need to have the desire to work to stay up. Devon (Sandoval) showed that.”

Sandoval put everything he had into making sure he wouldn’t lose much of his touch and fitness after being gone for so long.

“The road back was tough but what got me through was the support of my friends and family,” Sandoval said. “I don’t how I could ever make it to where I am right now without my family, they kept me going.”

The support from his family and the desire to be back on the field again transcended into Sandoval’s performance on the field, allowing him to play in three games for the Aztecs, starting in two.

“It was a really long year,” Sandoval said. “Being able to perform and play with the great and talented guys on my team has been the best thing. But really being out there, playing with everything I got, and even scoring, that’s how I know everything is going to be OK.”