The Aggies can cross another objective off their list and what a breakthrough it was. Utah State played like a team on a mission and it showed as four different Aggies found the back of the net en route to a 5-1 drubbing of San Diego State in a Mountain West soccer match on Thursday at Chuck & Gloria Bell Field. It was USU’s first-ever victory over SDSU, which is typically one of the top teams in the Mountain West and is the conference’s reigning regular season champions.
“It’s one of those moments where, gosh, I don’t have words for it because it’s one of those things where (our) program never had a win against this team and today not only did we do that, but it was with the whole team. Literally,” USU head coach Manny Martins said. “How many players did we play today? Goodness gracious, 29 or something? And every one impacted.
I couldn’t be more proud. A win would be great, but a win in this fashion, you know, it’s a statement.” Indeed, it was a statement-making performance by the 12th-ranked Aggies, who were smarting a bit after last Sunday’s scoreless draw on the road against Fresno State.
USU possessed the ball during the lion’s share of that match, but was unable to break through against a defensive-minded and resolute FSU squad. “I’m super proud of the group,” Martins said. “Obviously, last game, I thought our opponent presented some challenges that forced us to do a little bit of introspection and grow a little bit, but we hit the res.