Sacramento State men’s soccer (1-3-3) fell to the University of San Diego 2-1 Sunday, its second consecutive defeat.

Sac State’s sophomore midfielder Edwin Luna scored his first goal of the season in the 33rd minute of the match.

“It was important for him,” head coach Mike Linenberger said on Luna’s goal. “It was kind of weighing on him so getting that first goal will be good for his confidence. Hopefully that will allow him to relax a little bit and just enjoy the game, so I’m very happy for him to get the goal today.”

Hornets senior goalkeeper Cesar Castillo felt pressure from the high octane offense of the Toreros  He was able to block the first two shots from San Diego, but he was unable to block the third that ended up past him in the 20th minute.

The goal was scored by USD’s forward Eli Galbraith-Knapp when he was able to trap a cross and launch his goal from 15 yards out to give the Toreros the lead 1-0.

However, the Hornets bounced back to score its lone goal when junior forward Chimdum Mez led Luna past the last defender as he rifled into the right corner of the goal. Luna’s goal tied up the score at 1-1 heading into halftime.

As of halftime, Sac State held the advantage in shots over the Toreros 9-6 and had more corner set pieces 3-2.

Despite a couple good chances in the early moments of the second half for Sac State, it was unable to keep a clean game, when Almog Strikowski was yellow carded in the 70th minute of the match. The set piece from the yellow card ultimately led to the go ahead and eventual game winning goal by the Toreros in the 73rd minute.

USD’s forward Torrey Dearmas scored a goal for himself after he assisted on the first goal of the match. Dearmas was able to blow past Castillo and shoot a low rolling shot from 15 yards out, giving the Toreros 2-1 lead.

Linenberger said even though it is disappointing to not come away with a win this weekend he is pleased with the team’s performance without senior forward Isaac Ikyurav.

“I thought it was a game that could have gone either way so I was pleased with how we bounced back after a very disappointing effort and performance on Friday,” Linenberger said. “ We created chances and scored a goal, which was important for us.”

Sac State will play its last non conference game of the season before it heads into conference play on Friday at UNLV.