Sports

Sept. 8 - 14, 2021 EDITOR: Jason Freund • sports@thedailyaztec.com

SDSU scores 28 unanswered points en route to 28-10 comeback victory

By Jason Freund

SPORTS EDITOR

Like last year, the San Diego State Aztecs struggled to pass the ball at the start of this season. However, just like last year, the running game picked up the slack.

After missing two games and rushing for just 100 yards in the last three games of the 2020 season, senior running back Greg Bell exploded for a career-high 165 yards on 20 carries as the Aztecs scored 28 unanswered points in the second half to beat the New Mexico State University Aggies 28-10.

At first, it was looking like SDSU’s 2020 struggles through the air would come back to haunt them at Dignity Health Sports Park. After winning the starting job over senior Lucas Johnson and sophomore Jaydon Maylon, senior quarterback Jordon Brookshire appeared flustered in the first half as constant pressure forced him to scramble out of the pocket and make ill-advised and off-target throws.

Passes that Brookshire did complete were short passes for little yardage. Even though his receivers dropped catchable passes, Brookshire did complete a 42yard pass to the wide-open senior Kobe Smith…which was immediately negated due to a holding call.

Undisciplined play resulted in unnecessary penalties that set the Aztecs back on offense, while a soft zone defense was picked apart by Aggies junior quarterback Jonah Johnson, who went 34-for-56 while passing for 326 yards and a touchdown.

Head coach Brady Hoke was upset about his team’s wayward first-half mistakes but noticed the improvements made in the second half.

“In the first half, we had way too many mistakes. We made too many penalties and we did not have enough discipline in all areas,” Hoke said. “At the same time, Coach Kurt Mattix did a really good job in the second half with change-ups. I am proud of our football team.

With SDSU defenders either giving too much space or getting beat in manto-man coverage, the underdog NMSU squad shut out the Aztecs en route to a 10-0 halftime lead.

Coming out of the locker room, SDSU made necessary adjustments to counter NMSU’s quick pass-oriented offense.

After receiving the ball to start the second half, Brookshire completed passes of 18 and 24-yards to put the Aztecs in scoring range. Bell did the rest, breaking away from the NMSU defense to score a 23-yard touchdown, his first since the Nov. 21 matchup with Nevada.

Bell’s touchdown rejuvenated the Aztecs as both sides of the ball showed marked improvement in the second half. Brookshire, who ended the game 7-for-20 with 115 passing yards and an interception, used his feet to score an 18yard stumbling touchdown.

Senior Andrew Aleki’s pick-six and senior Jordan Byrd’s 43-yard touchdown on a reverse sweep gave SDSU a commanding 18-point lead.

After being repeatedly thwarted in the first half, the SDSU defense broke through in the second half. After being put under constant pressure, Johnson was intercepted three times, including the aforementioned Aleki interception.

The Scarlet and Black won the battle in the secondary as well, breaking up seven passes while senior corner Taylor Hawkins intercepted a 50/50 pass intended for redshirt junior Terrell Warner.

The unheralded hero of the game was junior punter Matt Araiza, who punted nine times during the game. Since 1996, 2,087 punters have punted the same amount of times. Araiza’s average of 56.8 yards per punt? Good for second-best amongst those punters.

Two of the junior’s nine punts went for over 70 yards, including a 77-yarder in the second quarter to pin the Aggies to their own four-yard line. His feats didn’t go unnoticed by both his teammates and his coaches.

“He did a great job and flipped the field position, helping the defense,’ Hoke said. “I am really proud of how he did, even kickoffs, every one of them was in the endzone. His ability is definitely a weapon for us.”

Still, the mistakes made throughout the game were noticeable. Junior offensive lineman William Dunkle was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a play was completed and a missed communication on special teams caused a muffed punt to bounce right back to the Aggies.

The offense cannot rely on running plays alone to supplement the offense and needs Brookshire to realize his potential to avoid becoming one-dimensional and predictable.

Photo by Noelani Sapla

The SDSU defense forces New Mexico State quarterback Jonah Johnson (10) to rush a pass.

Football to face first Pac-12 opponent in week two

By andrew Finley

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

San Diego State football erupted in the second half of their week one matchup versus New Mexico State, putting up 28 unanswered points en route to defeating the Aggies 28-10. The Aztecs (1-0) hope to keep that momentum rolling in week two.

However, their next opponent has more clout than their previous one, as the Aztecs take their first road trip to the University of Arizona — their first of two Pac-12 opponents on SDSU’s schedule.

The Wildcats (0-1) are in search for their first win since Oct. 5, 2019 and their first winning record since 2017.

Arizona’s week one matchup was a neutral site game in Las Vegas, Nevada versus Brigham Young University. The Wildcats never had a deficit exceeding 14 points and outscored BYU in the second half, but ultimately fell to the Cougars 2416.

Despite the loss to BYU, head coach Brady Hoke says Arizona isn’t a pushover.

“Second half they played very well against BYU,” Hoke said. “I think they’re a very physical team.”

Offense

First-year head coach Jedd Fisch has a large resume as an offensive football coach. His most recent employer was the New England Patriots, who hired him as a quarterback coach under legendary head coach Bill Belichick.

Aztec’s defensive coordinator Kurt Mattix says Arizona’s offense has a “pro personality” because of coach Fisch’s background.

“Coach Fisch spent so much time in the NFL, as well as college,” Mattix said. “Their offensive coordinator’s pass game is from UCLA, their run game I think is from the Seattle Seahawks.”

Similar to how NMSU played SDSU, Arizona threw the ball frequently with a 42-to-58% run-to-pass ratio in their game against BYU — a game in which they trailed the entire game. The Wildcats like to line up in three-receiver sets with a tight end, often in a bunch formation. They’ll also go with two receivers on each side and run two tight end sets.

Coach Mattix says the Arizona offense looked familiar in film.

“You watch (Arizona’s) spring game and it sort of really mirrored what the (Los Angeles) Rams are doing,” Mattix said. “Formationally, they’re going to do a lot of different shifts and trades in tight end sets and snug sets, and do a lot of what the Rams do.”

Passing game

The Wildcats are led by redshirt freshman quarterback Gunner Cruz. In his first ever college start in week one, Cruz was efficient — completing over 75% of his 48 pass attempts for 336 yards and a touchdown. Cruz gave up one interception in the fourth quarter, and was sacked four times against the Cougars.

Cruz wasn’t picky about who he threw the ball to in his first game as five players received four or more passes with four of those receivers eclipsing fifty yards receiving. Mattix says there’s a reason Cruz spreads the football around.

“Their receivers are pretty fast, comparable to other teams we’ve seen,” Mattix said.

Arizona’s main target is redshirt junior receiver Stanley Berryhill III who hauled in 12 catches — doubling the amount of catches as the second receiver — for 109 yards against BYU.

Out of the backfield, sophomore running backs Michael Wiley and Drake Anderson caught six passes each and combined for 92 yards receiving.

Senior wide receiver Tayvion Cunningham brought in four passes for 59 yards and redshirt junior BJ Casteel hauled in five catches for 53 yards and a touchdown.

Two tight ends had catches in week one as well. Senior Bryce Wolma and freshman Alex Lines combined for three catches for 37 yards.

Coach Mattix says that Berryhill and Cunningham are two guys the Aztecs will need to keep an eye on.

“Jersey number one (Barryhill) and 11 (Cunningham) are the two top guys for them that we’re sitting down and saying like, hey, we need to know where they are on every snap,” Mattix said. “Our peer coach indicated to us that getting jersey number one is an extreme honor at the University of Arizona, and they’re not going to give that to just anyone.”

Run game

Though the base of their offense is through the air, the Wildcats boast a strong run game that ran 31 times for 129 yards — 4.2 yards per carry — against BYU.

The bulk of the rushing comes from Arizona’s two running backs Wiley and Anderson. Wiley got 15 carries for 64 yards while Anderson got eight carries for 36 yards. Neither of the two backs lost yards on any play in week one.

The only loss of yards on the ground came from the quarterback position with Cuz losing 48 yards on his four sacks. Aside from the sacks, Cruz rushed the ball seven times for 29 yards while fellow freshman quarterback Will Plummer got a carry and gained a yard.

Defense

The Wildcats had a pretty quiet night on defense versus BYU, giving up 207 passing yards and 161 rushing yards on 34 attempts — 4.7 yards per carry. Arizona got to the quarterback just once while being unable to create any turnovers.

They like to run a 3-4-4 cover-one with a safety dropped down and the corners often in press coverage. Arizona also ran with five down linemen in a “bear” front, and liked to rush four or more defenders in any defensive formation.

The leading tacklers for the Wildcats are senior linebackers Anthony Pandy and Treshaun Hayward in addition to senior defensive lineman Trevon Mason with eight total tackles each. Hayward and Mason each recorded a tackle for a loss as well. Arizona had eight total TFL’s while only recording one sack by sophomore defensive lineman Kyon Barrs.

Overall

The Pac-12 is not an easy conference to play in with five AP Top 25 teams — three of which are in Arizona’s division. The fact that they’ve been winless since 2019 could very easily be due to the strength of their conference. That isn’t to say the Wildcats were never good in the Pac-12, but being in a Power-Five conference is tough when teams have to play up to some of the best teams in college football and you’re not one of them.

Since this football program’s last victory in October of 2019, the Wildcats have played nothing but Pac-12 opponents, and BYU last week— who were ranked in the top 10 last season. Most teams in college football — not just Arizona — struggle to win each week with similar schedules.

The Aztecs will be just the second nonconference team Arizona will play since their losing streak began, and they’ll be hungry to get that elusive first win on their home turf.

Women’s soccer loses fifth straight

By Marco Gonzalez and adaM correa

STAFF WRITERS

San Diego State Aztecs (1-5-0) continued a losing streak that totals to five straight. The Aztecs lost 3-0 to the Washington State Cougars (2-0-1) Thursday night, and 2-1 to the Long Beach State (3-2-0) Sunday night.

Three of the five teams the Aztecs have lost to are ranked in the Top 40 of the NCAA D1 women’s soccer rankings. Head coach Mike Friesen wants to challenge his teams with their non-conference schedule.

“If you look at our schedule we are playing, basically, three of the four Final Four teams from the last full season (2019),” Friesen said. “We want our team to see what it looks like from a competitive standpoint. Record wise, I’m never fearful of losing games. We want to play the absolute best schedule we can to put ourselves in a position to win it all at some point.”

Washington State Thursday Sept. 2

The Cougars opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Senior forward Elyse Bennett found space on the right side to get a cross off. Her cross found senior midfielder Sydney Studer on the back post and her header found the back of the net.

Washington State kept the game in the Aztecs half for most of the first half. SDSU was outshot 8 to1 and the score could have been more than 1 to 0 if it weren’t for key saves made by the Aztecs’ sophomore keeper Alexa Madueno. Madueno finished the game with nine saves.

“Alexa has had a monster of a year already,” head coach Mike Friesen said. “I’m excited about the level she’s playing at. She is keeping us in games and giving us a chance. I think that it is motivating the group in front of her to continue to work and deal with things that are really difficult.”

The Aztecs didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 77th minute. Freshman defender Trinity Coker got a bouncing ball 25 yards away from goal. Her shot had some power on it, but went right into the hands of senior Cougar goalkeeper Marissa Zuchetto.

Bennett had been using her speed to get behind the Aztec defense all game and was able to get behind the defense to help set up the Cougars second goal in the 85th minute. She made a run from the midfield and got into the right side of the Aztec box. She played a pass on the ground to the back post to wide open junior forward Grayson Lynch for a tap-in open goal.

Lynch would get her second goal of the match two minutes later when she took advantage of an SDSU defensive error. She intercepted the ball from an Aztec defender and fired a shot into the top left corner, past Madueno.

The Aztecs are a young team, with many underclassmen getting minutes early in the season. For freshman midfielder Alexys Ocampo, she is using the minutes given to her to get used to the speed of the collegiate game.

“The level is way faster and more competitive,” Ocampo said after Thursday’s game. “I have to be more aggressive and be able to keep the ball more. I’m also playing a new position, so I’m having to learn how to play a new position while playing at a high level, but it’s really different from high school.”

Long Beach State Sept. 5

The Aztecs totalled 19 shots with seven shots on goal against the Beach. Long Beach’s junior forward Lena Silano scored twice: once on a penalty kick and another assisted by senior teammate Kaylee Ramirez.

Before the game, SDSU head coach Mike Friesen told his team that he wanted them to shoot more to create more opportunities.

“We need to be better finishers,” Friesen said. “I think we had multiple chances in the first half to put a ball on the ground in a corner and we hit it high.Even on our services we created so many opportunities for service and hit the first defender.”

In the first 23 minutes, the Aztecs were strong against the Beach with a lot of pressure and scoring chances. CSULB got their first scoring opportunity in the 24th minute — a corner kick that was headed on goal and stopped by SDSU goalkeeper, Alexa Madueno.

Midfielder Denise Castro — who scored the only goal for the Aztecs and now has two goals this season — said they needed more energy tonight.

“I just feel that determination to want to score goals is what we need but I feel like overall we did a really good job,” Castro said on Sunday.

Defender Malia Kaleiohi, who played the full game and had four shots, said the positive was the strong start but the negative was giving up the penalty kick and a goal in at the back post.

“It was definitely a frustrating game, there were some tears shed so I think hopefully this will be a strong realization that we need to work on some things together,” Kaleiohi said. “Whether that’s focusing more on trainings at pieces, listening, we just have a few little things to get better that’s gonna turn the game around completely.”

The Aztecs play next against the University of San Diego at Torero Stadium on Friday, Sept. 10, at 7:30 p.m. The next home game will be against the University of California Los Angeles at the SDSU Sports Desk on Sunday, Sept. 19, at 6 p.m.

The Sports Deck at SDSU is the home of Aztec soccer.

File Photo

Men’s basketball notes: Michigan added, new assistant

By austin turke and nick coppo

CONTRIBUTORS

San Diego State basketball added a big contender to its schedule with the addition of an East Coast trip to Ann Arbor against the potentially top-ranked Michigan Wolverines on December 4. The matchup provides the Aztecs with an excellent opportunity to boost their tournament resume when the season concludes.

Michigan comes into the season after claiming the number one seed in the NCAA tournament East Regional bracket and climbing to the Elite Eight before falling to UCLA. The Wolverines will return three essential starters, including former freshman All-American Hunter Dickinson and are projected as the eighth best team in the country.

SDSU comes into the season following a Round of 64 exit and are deficient of last year’s star talent with both Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel departing. However, seniors Trey Pulliam, Adam Seiko and Nathan Mensah return along with the young talents of junior Keshad Johnson and sophomore Lamont Butler. Aztecs went out and added four significant transfers, headlined by the senior star player Matt Bradley.

The personal significance of SDSU playing Michigan

This matchup has historical significance between the two coaches. Aztec coach Brian Dutcher was the former assistant coach at Michigan and will return for the first time since his final season in 1998. Additionally, Dutcher used to coach the present day Michigan coach, Juwan Howard. The two of them were a part of the notorious “Fab Five,” which will be in college basketball lore forever.

Over the years, the Aztecs have been reluctant to add opponents to the schedule that feature long distance travel. This matchup will be the first in Aztec program

Photo By Jason Freund

Adam Seiko (2) looks on as Trey Pulliam (4) goes up for a layup against Colorado State.

history against Michigan. In fact, this will be the Aztecs first matchup against a Big Ten School in 25 years — an 82-70 win against Northwestern in 1996. This Michigan scheduling displays Dutcher’s willingness to bolster the Aztecs’ NCAA tournament resume by any means necessary.

In addition to the Michigan game and conference foes, the Aztecs’ other prominent matchups include a road game against BYU, a home game against Arizona State and a neutral site tournament over Thanksgiving which include Georgetown and potentially USC. The season tips off on Nov. 9.

Jaydee Luster Hired as Assistant Basketball Coach

The San Diego State Basketball program has hired Jaydee Luster as an assistant coach to join Brian Dutcher’s staff.

After losing assistant Jay Morris to USC, the hunt was on for a fresh face and the decision ultimately was made to hire Luster, who comes over from the University of the Pacific.

Luster described this as not just another job but a “dream opportunity.”

Growing up in San Diego, he was able to witness the rise of SDSU basketball at the precibus of the dynasty that Steve Fisher, Dutcher and others worked so hard to build. Luster had an illustrious career for Hoover High School — which is about two miles from his current office at Viejas Arena. He is San Diego’s all-time CIF leader in assists (857) and steals (559). Those 559 steals are the third most by a high school player ever. Apart from his impressive individual accolades, Luster and the Cardinals won two league titles and one CIF Championship across his four years at Hoover.

Luster spent his freshman season of college at New Mexico State but transferred to Wyoming after just one year. He was made a captain before ever playing a game in Laramie, which should bode well for his success in building relationships among the players and his fellow coaches at SDSU.

As well as his knack for relationship building, head coach Brian Dutcher also mentioned his recruiting experience and skill development. His coaching experience stems from the University of Arizona as a grad assistant, Bradley University as Director of Basketball Operations, the Dallas Mavericks as a player development coach, and finally, spent the last five years alongside Damon Stoudemire at Pacific.

“We’re really excited to have him,” Dutcher said.

This homecoming for Luster seems like a match made in basketball heaven. While SDSU has had great success inside the Mountain West for the greater part of the 2010s — winning seven conference tournament titles from 2010-2021 — a lengthy NCAA Tournament run has eluded them.

The Aztecs have not reached the Sweet 16 since 2014 including some heartbreaking losses to Houston and Syracuse in 2018 and 2021, respectively. With plenty of returning players, a few key transfers and some new blood by the name of Jaydee Luster in the coaching staff however, the Aztecs are set up to have another successful season and could have their sights on loftier goals than just a Mountain West title.

The Aztecs will tip-off conference play on New Year’s Day against conference rival UNLV in Las Vegas at the Thomas and Mack Center.