San Diego State’s Men’s Soccer (0-2-0) is in the midst of a season that should be a stepping stone for the team’s bright future. The club boasts talents such as Noah Cretier, who has played soccer professionally in France, and CJ Fodrey, who locally played for the San Diego Loyal and was the 11th ranked forward in last year’s recruiting class according to Top Drawer Soccer.

Despite being heralded as Top Drawer Soccer’s top recruiting class, the Aztecs have dropped back-to-back games to open the season. Their most recent game against the Loyola Marymount University Lions was lost in heartbreaking fashion.

SDSU controlled the majority of the game in the eyes of head coach Ryan Hopkins. That possession advantage eventually paid off at the conclusion of the first half when senior transfer student Joe Daluz put a stellar cross in for freshman Javi Camargo. The youngster’s shot batted off the post, but was calmly vollied into the net by redshirt freshman Rommee Jaridly. 

On scoring his first college goal, Jaridly exclaimed, “it feels amazing… I saw it hit the crossbar and fall right back to me, then just tapped it in. It was a great feeling.”

The Aztecs appeared to keep the upper hand into the second half, aided by a strong performance from the freshman Fodrey. Head coach Hopkins said the Aztecs were in full control of the first half and was hopeful that Fodrey could score and end the game with a win.

“We dominated for long stretches of the game,” said Hopkins. “And if CJ scores… It’s 2-0 and the game is probably over.”

However, the Lions stormed back in the last 10 minutes of the match. LMU tallied a free kick goal in the 81st minute, then assured a Lions victory five minutes later with a goal set up primarily by a throw-in.

Hopkins bluntly remarked it was a pretty painful way to lose.

“There’s painful lessons along the way,” Hopkins said. “We have so much talent and potential, it just takes a couple tough ones to take us where we need to go.”

The winless Aztecs will travel to the University of Omaha for their next match. The Aztecs will have to weather the Mavericks’ offense, which have put up five goals through their two opening matches. 

More contributions from youngsters should be on the way. With five freshmen starters, and loads of new talent on the bench, the coach and players remain confident that this team will start tallying wins in short order.

“This is a big stepping stone toward the future,” said Jaridly. “It was a good game for us to learn and grow from.”