Box Score

SAN DIEGO, Calif. â€" The USD men's soccer team (6-4-2) won a thrilling 3-2 match against the Portland Pilots Friday evening at Torero Stadium. Despite playing a man down for the final 35 minutes, Patrick McGrath scored the game-winning goal in the 76th minute to give USD a 2-0 start to WCC play.

It was a wild first 25 minutes that featured four goals. The Toreros found the back of the net first in the 17th minute when Torrey DeArmas finished a beautiful Keegan Smith through ball for his fourth goal of the season.

Five minutes later, Smith tied DeArmas for the team lead in goals when he scored on an assist from Michael Turner.

The fortunes quickly turned for the Toreros however. The Pilots responded with two goals of their own in the next three minutes to tie the match at two apiece. The first Portland goal came when Eddie Sanchez had a one-on-one with Thomas Olsen after a Brandon Zambrano assist. A minute later Zambrano had an unassisted goal inside the near post after a nice cutback.

The match featured eight cards and was punctuated with a Jose Merlo red card in the 56th minute, forcing USD to play with ten men for the rest of the match.

Despite being a man down, the Toreros continued to apply pressure and outshot the Pilots 12-5 in the second frame. They finally broke through in the 76th minute when Michael Turner juked two Pilots defenders to send in a cross that found a leaping Patick McGrath for the game-winning header.

Thomas Olsen had six saves to earn his sixth win of the season. The Pilots' Paul Christensen collected four saves but gave up three goals.

The Toreros continue WCC play on Sunday when they host Gonzaga at 2:00 p.m. The Bulldogs were shutout 1-0 at LMU Friday evening.