St. Augustine and Torrey Pines have long been two of San Diego County\u2019s premier high school boys soccer programs.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday afternoon, the two heavyweights shared the pitch for the 2025-2026 season opener.<\/p>\n
Behind goals from Jacob Nunnallee and Nico Bejar, Torrey Pines took down the four-time defending CIF Open Division champion Saints 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played like a united group for all 80 minutes,\u201d Torrey Pines coach Francisco Lona said. \u201cThey picked each other up. This is a really solid and cohesive group. We\u2019re really excited about this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a stagnant first 10 minutes, Torrey Pines found its footing in the attacking third. Controlling possession, the Falcons earned a corner kick in the 17th minute, followed shortly after by a free kick from 28 yards out in the 19th minute.<\/p>\n
The consistent opportunities from just outside the box soon bore fruit for Torrey Pines. In the 22nd minute, Chase Mafong made a quality run to just outside the box and sent in a low cross towards an unmarked Nunnallee, who headed the pass just inside the near post into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to get into a good position and finish the play. Chase gave me a great ball. I had it on a platter and scored,\u201d Nunnallee said. \u201cPlaying a team that\u2019s coming off a whole bunch of championships, beating them in our first game is huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torrey Pines did well to keep St. Augustine\u2019s offense at bay in the first half, allowing just one shot on goal in the first 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played with good power, pace, and energy along the backline in the first half,\u201d Lona said. \u201cWe made some switches in the second half, but there was no drop-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Falcons remained aggressive in the second half, with Danny Holzer tallying a shot on goal in the 41st minute.<\/p>\n
In the 63rd, Torrey Pines seized another opportunity to expand its lead. After a long cross fell at the feet of Bejar, the Falcons\u2019 senior quickly beat his man and drove inside the box, where he was fouled.<\/p>\n
Bejar quickly gathered himself and laced a low shot into the bottom right corner for a penalty kick goal.<\/p>\n
St. Augustine did its best to make it a game late, scoring on a Rafael Pulido strike in the 76th minute to cut the lead to 2-1. But ultimately, the Saints were unable to find an equalizer in the game\u2019s final minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the defending champions, so to come to their house and do a bit of damage to them, it\u2019s a great way to start the season,\u201d Lona said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Augustine and Torrey Pines have long been two of San Diego County\u2019s premier high school boys soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":423125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3102,1370,3549,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-423124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115658950201470086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}