SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men’s soccer team plays at Cal State Fullerton Saturday evening at 7 p.m. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Aztec Tidbits
- The Aztecs are coming off a 2-0 loss to Cal Poly Sunday night. It was the third time this season, SDSU lost a match where they outshot their opponent.
- The Aztecs played without six starters due to injury.
- Six of SDSU’s last seven matches have been at home. Saturday will be just the Aztecs’ second road match since Aug. 24.
- SDSU is averaging 6.22 corner kicks per match, the most in the WAC and 31st most in the nation. The Aztecs have had more corner kicks than their opponents in seven of their nine matches.
- The Aztecs are second in the WAC in shots per match (14.67). They are outshooting their opponents 132-100 on the year.
- Six of the eight goals SDSU has scored have come from defenders.
- This is just the second time in the last 12 years that SDSU won’t have a winning record in non-conference play.
- San Diego State has shown incredible depth this season. 20 different Aztecs have already started a match. No field player averages more than 75 minutes per match, and no one has started more than seven of SDSU’s nine matches.
- Since the beginning of the 2024 season, SDSU is 12-1-2 when scoring first and 12-2-3 when tied or leading at the half.
- SDSU has lost just 10 non-conference matches over their last 32 chances (17-10-5) and is 19-6-2 (.714) in non-conference home matches under Ryan Hopkins (6th season), which includes an 19-5-0 (.791) mark on the SDSU Sports Deck.
- The Aztecs are 26-15-5 (.619) at home since the beginning of the 2021 season.
- SDSU had a conference-high three players named to the preseason All-WAC Team, as chosen by the league’s coaches. Cianole Nguepissi was named the Preseason Defender of the Year and Terence Okoeguale and Tristan Viviani made the preseason All-WAC Team.
- SDSU had two players named a “Midfielder to Watch” by the United Soccer Coaches: Okoeguale and Carson Ballagh, a transfer from Oakland University.
- According to Top Drawer Soccer, the Aztecs have the 26th best incoming class in 2025 and the sixth best on the West Coast.
- SDSU has 12 newcomers (5 freshmen and 7 transfers). Five of their seven transfers were all-conference honorees at their previous school.
- The Aztecs won the WAC regular season championship last year, the program’s first conference championship in school history. SDSU went undefeated (7-0-1) in the WAC in conference play and shut out their opponents in six of their eight WAC matches.
- SDSU’s 10 wins in 2024 were their most since 2011.
- Head coach Ryan Hopkins was named the WAC Coach of the Year last season.
- The Aztecs were picked to finish first in the WAC in the preseason coaches poll.
- SDSU has been nationally ranked at one point in three of the last four seasons.
- Defender Reid Fisher was selected by Toronto FC with the 23rd overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft in December. He became the third Aztec to be drafted in the last three years, and second in the first round, joining CJ Fodrey (13th overall) and Blake Bowen (59th) who were both selected in the 2022 SuperDraft.
Player Notes
- Christian Engmann (Seattle, Wash.) leads the team in points (6) and goals (3) and has scored the game-winning goal in all three of SDSU’s wins. His three game-winning goals are tied for the fourth most in the nation.
- Lleyton Imparato (Tampa Bay, Fla.) and Carson Ballagh are tied for the team lead with three assists.
- Imparato was the AAC Co-Midfielder of the Year last season at Memphis.
- Ballagh (Lake Orion, Mich.) also has two assists. He was on the United Soccer Coaches “Midfielder to Watch” List. Last season as a sophomore at Oakland University he was named to the All-Horizon First Team and United Soccer Coaches All-North Region Third-Team after dishing out a league-high five assists in conference play. Ballagh helped Oakland win the Horizon League regular championship both years he was there and was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament Team on both occasions.
- Terence Okoeguale (Cologne, Germany) joined Ballagh on the “Midfielder to Watch” list and was on the Preseason All-WAC Team. Last season he led the Aztecs with 17 points (6 goals & 5 assists) and was named to the All-WAC First Team and to the United Soccer Coaches Far West All-Region Second-Team. His six goals and five assists both tied for the team lead, and he also led the team in shot on goal percentage (58.3%, 14-for-24).
- Juan Zepeda (Guadalajara, Mexico) leads the team in shots (22) and shots on goal (7)
- Cianole Nguepissi (Birmingham, England) was named the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Last year he made the WAC All-Freshman Team after starting every WAC match and helping SDSU post six clean sheets in their eight conference matches.
- Tristan Viviani (Redwood City, Calif.) was also named to the Preseason All-WAC Team. He is a three-year starter who has displayed his versatility throughout his tenure on The Mesa by playing all over the pitch. Entering the year, he appeared in 46 matches with 39 starts in his career and last year played 1,495 minutes, the third most on the team, and played a full 90 minutes in all but four matches.
- Rommee Jaridly (Chino Hills, Calif.) and Beto Apolinar (Los Angeles) are both three-year starters in their fifth year with the program. They each had four assists last year, which tied for third on the team.
- Apolinar and goalkeeper Eddy Vargas (Yakima, Wash.) are the 2025 team captains. It’s the third year Apolinar has been selected as captain.
- Apolinar and Engmann helped lead Ballard FC to the USL 2 Championship match over the summer.
- Transfers Baptiste Boit (Oral Roberts), Stephan Moreira (SIU Edwardsville), Juan Zepeda (Temple) and Imparato (Memphis) were all-conference honorees at their previous school. Imparato (Tampa Bay, Fla.) was named the 2024 AAC Co-Midfielder of the Year and Moreira was the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
- SDSU has 12 seniors and seven of them are in their fifth, sixth (Engmann) or seventh (Vargas) year.
Opponent Notebook (Cal State Fullerton)
The Titans are 3-2-4 on the year and 1-0-1 at home… They are 2-0-1 over their last three matches with wins over two WAC programs (Grand Canyon and Utah Tech)… They have scored three goals in each of their last two matches… They are allowing 2.33 goals per game… Fernando Valenzuela leads the team in points (7) and goals (3)… Jose de la Torre has a team-high three assists… Goalkeeper Emmanuel Padilla is 2-1-2 with a 1.95 goals allowed average… Head coach George Kuntz is in his 11th season at CSF. Prior to that he was the head coach at UC Irvine for 19 years… The Aztecs are 15-17-2 all-time vs. the Titans, but this will be their first meeting in 15 years… They first played in 1968.