SAN DIEGO – San Diego used a stout second-half defense to back up a first half filled with big plays to win its PFL season opener, 31-7, over Marist on Saturday at Torero Stadium.
 
The Toreros (2-2, 1-0 PFL), who extended their conference winning streak to a Division I-leading 30 games, held Marist (1-4, 1-2 PFL) to 245 yards – the fewest surrendered in a game since 2017 – and had four interceptions in the second half. The offense, meanwhile, scored three touchdowns in the first half, including two on 40+ yard passes.
 
Cassius Johnson had two of the four USD interceptions, the most by a Torero since Daniel Tolbert had two in November 2017 also against Marist. Daniel added one of his own on Saturday while his twin brother David Tolbert also grabbed one, a pick-six in the fourth that capped the Toreros' scoring.
 
The four interceptions were the most in a game for the Toreros since 2016.
 
Reid Sinnett threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns on 19-of-29 passing to pilot the USD offense that finished with 453 yards. The redshirt senior was 11-of-14 with 219 yards and all three touchdowns through the first half.
 
Sinnett completed a pass to eight different receivers, seven of which had multiple catches. Michael Armstead led the way with a season-high four receptions while Alex Spadone, who caught the first two touchdown passes for 40 and 49 yards, finished with a personal-best 110 yards on three catches.
 
The Toreros wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Sinnett connected with Spadone on the final play of a six-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 2:46 to start the game. It was the second straight contest USD scored on its opening drive.
 
The second scoring USD drive was even shorter thanks to Armstead returning a punt 45 yards to give the offense good field position at the Marist 49-yard line early in the second quarter. On the subsequent play, Sinnett found Spadone on a cross route, who then ran up the sideline to make it 14-0 35 seconds into the quarter.
 
After Marist responded with a touchdown on the following drive to cut the USD lead in half at 14-7, the Toreros answered with a 12-play, 85-yard scoring drive that culminated with a seven-yard touchdown pass from Sinnett to Jo Jo Binda, Jr.
 
Binda, Jr. had only the one reception, but the senior led the team with 56 yards on 10 rushes. He had 45 of the 56 yards on the ground in the second half to help the team finish with 112 rushing yards.
 
The Toreros recorded their four interceptions in the second half on four consecutive Marist drives, starting with Daniel Tolbert's pick with 3:57 remaining in the third. Johnson joined in with his first interception almost four minutes later before his second pick eventually resulted in a field goal in the fourth quarter that made it 24-7.
 
The final interception proved to be the biggest highlight of them all as David Tolbert jumped a route in front of the Marist bench to return it for 46 yards and cap the game's scoring with 9:22 left in the game.
 
The USD defense finished by holding Marist to 206 yards passing – 90 of which came in the second half – and 39 yards rushing.
 
The Toreros move on to their next game against Davidson on October 12 at 10 a.m. PT. It will be USD's first game outside of California this year.
 
NOTES
In addition to extending their conference winning streak to 30 games, the Toreros also won their 35th straight conference home game – a stretch that dates back to 2010. Both streaks – the conference overall winning streak and conference home winning streak – are the longest active streaks in all of Division I.
 
The Toreros' 245 yards allowed were their fewest in a game since November 25, 2017 when they allowed 238 at Northern Arizona in an FCS playoff game.
 
USD improved to 15-0 all-time against Marist. It has also scored 30+ points in six of the last eight games in the series.
 
The Toreros have scored 30+ points in seven straight games dating back to last year.
 
Prior to Saturday, the last time USD had four interceptions in a game was November 19, 2016 at Campbell.
 
David Tolbert led the defense in tackles with eight (seven solo) to go with his pick-six.