San Diego Athletics

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dom Nankil threw for 354 yards and Elijah Taylor had 144 receiving yards and a touchdown, but USD Football (1-3, 0-1 PFL) fell 50-17 at St. Thomas (4-1, 1-0 PFL) in Saturday's Pioneer Football League opener.

On a rainy afternoon at O'Shaughnessy Stadium, the Toreros held the ball for 33:04, finished with 25 first downs to St. Thomas' 22 and won the third quarter 10-7 by scoring on their first two possessions of the second half.

Seven Toreros caught passes from Nankil, who completed 29 of 50 and also ran for a score. Taylor led the way with 10 catches, Christopher Hall added five for 81 yards and Cole Monach had five for 68, including a 35-yarder on third-and-14 in the first quarter.

USD had the ball for more than 10 minutes of the opening quarter, but St. Thomas needed only eight plays to score twice, the second on a 75-yard touchdown pass. Down 14-0, the Toreros answered with a six-play, 67-yard drive, and on the first snap of the second quarter, Nankil went deep to Taylor for a 31-yard touchdown.

The Tommies struck back 36 seconds later on a 57-yard touchdown run, the start of a 22-point second quarter. St. Thomas added a 25-yard quarterback run for a score and a 38-yard interception return for another, taking a 36-7 lead into the break.

Coming out of halftime, Nankil completed five of six passes on the opening drive — two each to Taylor and Hall and one to Monach — then kept it himself on second-and-2 and ran 16 yards for a touchdown to finish an eight-play, 75-yard march.

After St. Thomas scored on a 17-yard pass, the Toreros went right back down the field. Taylor's 21-yard catch opened a nine-play, 53-yard drive, and Emiliano Salazar, who has made a field goal in every game this season, capped it with a 30-yarder to make it 43-17 with 6:01 left in the third quarter.

St. Thomas' next drive stalled near midfield when River Abenroth dropped the quarterback for a 2-yard loss and safety Ruben Lopez broke up passes on the next two plays, forcing a punt. Lopez finished with eight tackles, seven of them solo, and a tackle for loss, while Abenroth had two tackles for loss and Ezekiel Swayne added five stops.

Major Givens answered a 7-yard St. Thomas touchdown run early in the fourth quarter with a 44-yard kickoff return to the USD 48, and Nankil hit Taylor for 33 yards on the next snap. The Toreros reached the St. Thomas 7 on both of their fourth-quarter possessions but were turned away on downs each time, the last with 45 seconds to play.

UP NEXT
San Diego returns to Torero Stadium for the first time since the season opener, hosting Davidson in its PFL home opener on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 1 p.m.