MOREHEAD, Ky. – In the second year under head coach
Brandon Moore, San Diego Football finished the regular season 8-3, 6-2 in PFL play after another dominant victory, 37-14 over a solid Morehead State team on the road Saturday.
"It was awesome," Moore said. "It's a testament to the leadership, those guys made a decision to be great, and we fought all year to get there."
The Toreros finish alone in second in the Pioneer Football League, falling just behind Drake (7-1), who clinched the PFL outright title with their own win Saturday. The Bulldogs topped USD 30-28 on a walk-off field goal on Sept. 28 in Des Moines, Iowa, proving the difference for San Diego's postseason hopes. The Toreros move to 17-0 all-time against the Eagles.
Senior running back
Isaiah Smith led the way for the Toreros, rushing for 205 yards and one score on 31 attempts (6.6 YPC). Grad quarterback
Grant Sergent posted another stellar game, completing 18-24 passes with two touchdowns.
Defensively, USD was led by defensive back
Ruben Lopez, who had five tackles, including a sack. Lineman
Brian Coburn had four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Safety
Trey Ortega recorded the game's lone turnover, intercepting a pass and returning it for 59 yards.
Kicker
Aidan Lehman was perfect on the day, making fieldgoals from 36, 37 and 44 yards, also converting on all four of his point-after-touchdown attempts.
A pivotal stat down the stretch saw San Diego keep the hosts to 2-11 on third down, going 7-15 on third down offensively, 2-2 on fourth down conversions.
How it Happened
- After multiple first downs secured by freshman running back Eric Mulkey, the Toreros continued their theme of scoring on their first offensive possession as senior receiver Christopher Hall connected on a 33-yard trick play pass to Bradley Schlom in the endzone
- USD got it's second score of the game on a 36-yard make from Lehman
- At first quarter's end the Toreros had nine non-penalty first downs to the Eagles zero, putting up 143 yards of total offense, allowing 16
- Morehead State got it's first score on a 26-yard rushing TD at 11:59 in the second quarter
- The Toreros answered back with 17 unanswered points, starting with a seven-yard passing TD from Sergent to Ja'seem Reed for a PFL leading 12th time this season
- San Diego led 17-7 at half
- Lehman converted easily from 44 yards to start the third quarter
- Sergent found senior receiver Josh Heverly for a 22-yard passing touchdown at 1:25 remaining in the third quarter, his career-best sixth receiving TD of the season
- 44 seconds of game time later, the Eagles scored again on a 48-yard deep ball caught in the endzone to cut USD's lead to 27-14
- After logging nearly 200 rushing yards to the point of 7:25 remaining in the game, Smith finally found his way into the endzone, scoring on an 18-yard rush with multiple broken tackles
- For the punctuation mark on the game and the season, Ortega picked off the Eagles quarterback and returned it 59 yards, nearly scoring the Toreros seventh defensive touchdown of the season
- Lehman capitalized on the turnover with a 37-yard field goal to settle the score at 37-14
