SWC kickers keep it moving forward in 2026

The Southwestern College men and women’s soccer teams are off to a very promising start to the 2026 community college season. The men improved their early season record to 5-1 following Tuesday’s 1-0 non-conference victory against visiting Fullerton while the SWC women have yet to taste defeat with a record of 3-0-5.

Jorge Elijah Lopez scored the lone goal in Tuesday’s match, tallying in the 86th minute to break a scoreless tie. 

Three red cards were issued in the contest along with two yellow ones.

The result extended the Jaguars’ winning streak to three games, building on previous victories against L.A. Harbor (2-1 on Sept. 11) and Compton (2-0 on Sept. 15).

SWC had opened the season with wins over Cypress (2-0 on Sept. 1) and Orange Coast (4-0 on Sept. 4). The Jags’ lone loss has been to Arizona Western (3-0 on Sept. 8).

Southwestern remains 5-0 at home and 0-1 on the road.

The Jaguars next play Oct. 2 at San Diego Mesa, 3:30 p.m.

Esteban Gonzalez and Daniel Gutierrez scored goals in the comeback victory against L.A. Harbor while Sebastian Mendoza and Jesus Valenzuela each scored unassisted goals in the shutout win over Compton.

Issai Anguiano, Daniel Arath, Valenzuela and Jair Mariscal each scored goals in the 4-0 win over Orange Coast.

Photo Gallery by Karla Martinez

The SWC women have tied their last two matches — Miramar (2-2 on Sept. 18) and MiraCosta (0-0 on Sept. 22).

The Lady Jags opened the season with a 6-2 win over visiting Fullerton on Aug. 28 and followed with three consecutive draws (2-2 against Mt. San Jacinto on Sept. 1, 0-0 against San Bernardino Valley on Sept. 4, and 1-1 against Chaffey on Sept. 8) before defeating Imperial Valley, 6-1, on Sept. 11 and notching a 1-0 win over San Diego City on Sept. 15 in another conference matchup.

Diamel Patino, Claudette Gonzalez, Aubrey Thomas, Emily Keeley, Aliya Courtney and Melany Perez each scored goals in the win over Imperial Valley.

Thomas, assisted by Keeley, scored the game-winner against SD City.

Keeley scored both second-half. goals to tie Miramar.

The opening eight games include a 3-0-3 mark on home turf and a 0-0-2 road record. 

Southwestern enters its next game Friday, Sept. 25, at Palomar College with a 2-0-2 conference record. The Lady Jags host crosstown rivals Grossmont on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 1 p.m. and Mesa on Oct. 2 at 5 p.m.

Lady Aztecs over power Lady Bears with 5-0 goal rush

The San Diego State Universty women’s soccer team coasted to a 5-0 win over Northern Colorado Sunday at the SDSU Sports Deck to wrap up the team’s non-conference schedule.

The Lady Aztecs improved to 6-2-1 in the first half of the season while Northern Colorado fell to 3-4-2.

Kenny Moore took the first shot on target for the Aztecs, in the 11th minute, but it was saved by Thordis Melsted. Four minutes later, Alexis Leath came across from the left side of the goal and passed to Moore, who fired the ball past Melsted to give the Aztecs a 1-0 lead. A minute later, Leath forced another save. In the 18th minute, Katie Senn ran up to a loose ball in the box and turned on it, shooting past Melsted to double the Aztec lead.

The Aztecs looked to add on, but Melsted saved shots by Eva Wees in the 19th minute and Victoria Miller in the 27th. In the 34th minute, Miller passed to Karoline Lundstrom, who found freshman KK Chowana-Bandhu. She dribbled past her defender and used her left leg to flick the ball across into the right side of the goal to extend the lead to three. The Bears finally took their first shot of the day early in the 43rd minute, but it was saved by Kailey Carlen, what would be her only save of the match.

In the 59th minute, Katie Senn took a corner kick and sophomore Briahna Gieger headed it past Melsted for her first career goal. The 5-10 San Diego native was playing in the 23rd match of her career. Melsted saved shots by Lundstrom and Senn, in the 68th and 72nd minutes, respectively.

In the 77th minute, both teams put in their backup goalkeepers. Five minutes later, an Aztec corner kick bounced around the box and Naima Castro took advantage of the opportunity and shot past keeper Lily Kline for her third goal as an Aztec. Late in the 89th minute, the Bears took their second shot on goal of the day, but Sammy Martinez, making her second career appearance in goal at the Division I level, made the save to preserve the shutout for a 5-0 victory.

The Aztecs finished the match with more shots (19-4), shots on goal (11-2) and corner kicks (5-1). The Bears had more saves (6-2), and each team tallied five fouls.

THE NOTE I

San Diego State beat Pacific 7-0 on August 27. The Aztecs have now scored at least five goals in a match multiple times in a season for the first time since 2002, when SDSU defeated both UC Riverside and Nevada by a 5-1 score. The last time that SDSU won multiple matches by at least five goals in a season was 1999, when San Diego State beat Cincinnati 5-0 and Wyoming 6-0.

THE NOTE II

KK Chowana-Bandhu became the first Aztec true freshman to score in three consecutive matches since Rachelle Elve in 2019. Elve scored two goals in a 5-4 win at Air Force on October 18 and also scored in a 3-2 win at Colorado College on October 20 and a 2-1 win in overtime at Fresno State on October 25.

UP NEXT

The Aztecs open up Pac-12 competition with a big home match against Boise State at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 1. All home matches on the SDSU Sports Deck have free admission, and all of the Aztecs’ Pac-12 matches will be streamed on the Pac-12 YouTube channel.

SDSU’s Chowana-Bandhu named Pac-12 Newcomer of the Week

San Diego State women’s soccer midfielder KK Chowana-Bandhu was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Week, the league announced Tuesday afternoon.

Chowana-Bandhu started both matches for SDSU (6-2-1) in a 2-0 week for the Aztecs, scoring a goal in each and playing a total of 132 minutes. Between the two matches, she took ten shots with six on goal.

In Thursday’s win over Pepperdine, the native of Oak Park, California, attempted seven shots with five on goal, matching the Waves’ total of seven shots and surpassing Pepperdine’s two on goal. In the 51st minute, Victoria Miller passed to Alexis Leath, who ran up field and passed to Chowana-Bandhu in the box. She beat her defender and the keeper for the goal. Chowana-Bandhu took three more shots on Sunday against Northern Colorado. She scored a spectacular goal in the 34th minute when she took a pass from Karoline Lundstrom and dribbled past her defender and used her left leg to kick the ball across into the right side of the goal.

She also scored the game-winning goal in the Aztecs’ previous match at Utah Valley. Against Northern Colorado, Chowana-Bandhu became the first Aztec true freshman to score in three consecutive matches since Rachelle Elve had four goals in three matches from October 18-25, 2019.

The freshman is the second Aztec to win a weekly award this season following Kailey Carlen’s Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week award on August 18, for her four-save shutout in the season-opening win at UC San Diego. Last season, SDSU won four conference weekly awards.

Photos by Paul Martinez

San Diego State men’s soccer tripped up at Santa Clara 2-1

The Aztecs host Cal State Fullerton 2-1The San Diego State men’s soccer team (2-4-3) lost at Santa Clara (3-5-0) 2-1 Sunday evening. The Aztecs struck first with a goal in the 52^nd minute before Santa Clara scored goals in the 57^th and 79^th minute to earn the win.

“A tough loss tonight where we didn’t play mature enough to close out the game,” SDSU head coach Ryan Hopkins said after the match.

Despite being out-shot 11-3 in the first half, the Aztecs were the first to score. In the 52^nd minute Max Mair sent a cross into the box that was headed by Nik Orth to Max’s brother Dylan Mair who slipped the ball past the keeper to give the freshman his first career goal.

Just over five minutes later the Broncos scored the equalizer on a Diego Jalleau goal.

In the 79^th minute, Santa Clara took the lead when Will Wiersforf finished an assist from Jalleau and Moises Almonte.

The Aztecs nearly tied the match at 2-2 in the 88th minute following a corner when they caught the Bronco goalkeeper out of position, but a defender was able to block the shot with his body to prevent the goal.

SDSU goalkeeper Nic Diana registered five saves.

STAT OF THE MATCH

The Aztecs allowed 11 shots in each half.

THE NOTE

Cedric Ngounou and Lucas Caffo made their first starts of the season.

UP NEXT

The Aztecs host Cal State Fullerton Saturday at 7 p.m.