SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Down 1-0 at the half, the Navy men's soccer team (0-1-1) battled back to even the game twice and came away with a 2-2 draw against San Diego State (0-1-1) on a sweltering Sunday afternoon at the SDSU Sports Deck in San Diego, Calif.
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Jack Illig and
Cohen Nance notching their first collegiate goals and
Nick Gallucci registering two assists, the Midshipmen also saw
Dylan Carmody make three saves before going down with an injury while
Sam Clark picked him up with four saves of his own over the final 18 minutes.
An attacking chance for the Mids at 15' saw
Duncan Sullivan put a shot wide of the cage, while
Dylan Carmody stopped a pair of SDSU opportunities at 23' and 25' just before the hydration break. The Aztecs took the lead at 28' when Gio Aguirre redirected a Greyson Moreno cross from near the left endline, beating Carmody to the right post.
Sullivan tried to even the game in the 32nd minute with a kick from outside the right edge of the box, but Nic Diana knocked it down while an offside call at 39' negated another Navy push.
The Mids came out of halftime and finally got its equalizer at 48' when
Will Cawlfield left a pass for
Nick Gallucci, who sent a long cross into the box for the rookie Illig to head home for Navy's first goal of 2026.
With both sides forcing the goalkeeper to make a save following the equalizer, Illig nearly put the Mids in front when he rifled a shot inside the box off the left woodwork at 67'. SDSU capitalized minutes later when Brecken Bowers booted a loose ball off a Navy corner kick downfield to Kian McCucker, who then raced down the right side and made a short cross to Aguirre and Aguirre touched it past Carmody towards the left post at 71' for his brace.
After Carmody left the game in the 73rd minute, Clark made a big save on Dylan Presto less than two minutes later to give momentum back to the Mids. After captain
Nate Stewart took an Aztec giveaway at 79' and passed it up to Gallucci, Gallucci put it into the left attacking corner for Nance to pick up, as Nance then beat a defender near the corner flag and kicked it past Diana into the low left corner for the tying score.
Clark then kept the draw intact with two saves in a 30-second span after the restart and then stonewalled Aguirre at 85' for his fourth and final save.
Head Coach John Hackworth Comments
"That was a tough battle. The one biggest thing for me is that we showed good character in that game. Coming off a very hard loss on Thursday and facing a good San Diego State team, we put on a great performance. Unbelievable that we were down twice in that game and looked like we were on fumes but we kept fighting to even it. We played good soccer with the ball then against the ball we turned them over with the press a couple times. That's what we want to do, so we need to keep building on this. These two games should show us a lot about the team we are capable of being."
Match Notes
• Navy is now 0-2-1 in the all-time series with SDSU.
• Sunday marked Gallucci's first multi-assist contest of his career.
• The last time Navy had two freshmen notch their first collegiate goals in the same game was October 18, 2025 when both Gallucci and
Luke Parker scored against Lafayette.
• Sunday marked Clark's collegiate debut.
Up Next
Navy will return to Annapolis for its home opener against George Washington on Friday, Aug. 28. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
