Monterey Bay Falls to San Antonio FC in Season Opener

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Saturday, March 8, 2025) – Monterey Bay FC (0-1-0, 0 points) fell 1-0 to San Antonio FC (1-0-0, 3 points) at Toyota Field in the 2025 USL Championship regular season opener. Nine players made their Crisp-and-Kelp debuts in the match: Ethan Bryant, Nico Campuzano, Nico Gordon, Adam Larsson, Miles Lyons, Mayele Malango, Ilijah Paul, Anton Søjberg, and Salinas native Joel Garcia Jr. all played their first regular season minutes together for the club.

Monterey Bay FC began the match as the more active of the two sides. Alex Dixon made a move down the right sideline before playing Larsson into the middle of the pitch. Larsson immediately looked to pick out a run by Xavi Gnaulati, but the pass was just a bit too far in front and the San Antonio goalkeeper was able to scoop it up. Five minutes later, Bryant whipped a dangerous low cross into the box towards three players in Crisp blue, but the pass was cut out by the keeper. More action inside the box for the visitors came in the 14th minute, when Larsson turned and fired off a quick shot, but it was blocked by a defender. The block led to a scramble inside the box that ended with a subsequent shot by Dixon, but his attempt missed wide to the left. San Antonio put their first attacking stamp on the match with a header two minutes later, but it was denied by the post. In the 17th minute, Jimmy Medranda took a shot from distance for the hosts, but it was saved by Campuzano.

Then in the 27th, Gnaulati intercepted a pass at the top of the box and drove all the way down the center of the pitch with a long box-to-box run, but it was snuffed out at the last minute by Mitchell Taintor. 10 minutes later, Jorge Hernandez picked out Diogo Pacheco for a header across the face of goal from inside the six-yard box, but it ricocheted off the far post. However, Pacheco would eventually grab the opening goal for San Antonio just three minutes later after a scramble in the box and a deflection sent Campuzano the wrong way to put the home side in front 1-0 just before the end of the half. Then in first half stoppage time, San Antonio looked likely to double its lead when Juan Agudelo found himself all alone inside the box, but his attempt was stopped by Campuzano. Immediately after, Jake LaCava beat everyone to the loose ball and fired off a shot of his own, but it smashed off the crossbar and the half came to a close with the hosts out in front.

Powerful new forward Malango came close to evening up the scoreline in the 73rd minute when he turned inside the box and struck the ball with his right foot, but his shot missed the top-left corner by mere inches. Monterey Bay applied an increased amount of pressure in the final few minutes of stoppage time in hopes of finding an equalizer, but San Antonio stood tall to preserve the win.

Up Next

Monterey Bay hosts NorCal rivals Oakland Roots SC in the 2025 home opener at Cardinale Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. PT. The match will be broadcast locally via KION (46 & 23 over the air, 46 Dish, 27 DirecTV and 5/705 HD Xfinity), with live streaming available on CBS Sports Golazo via Paramount+, the CBS Sports app, CBSSports.com, and Pluto TV.

Additional Notes

The match was a homecoming for Ethan Bryant as he returned to face San Antonio FC for the first time in his professional career since becoming his hometown club’s first academy product back in 2018.
Missing the match due to injury were Luther Archimède (lower body), Wesley Fonguck (lower body), and Diego Gutiérrez (lower body). Mobi Fehr and Luke Ivanovic were unavailable for selection.

Information

Date: March 8, 2025
Venue: Toyota Field; San Antonio, Texas
Weather: Clear and 68°F

Scoring Summary: 1 2 F

San Antonio FC 1 0 0
Monterey Bay FC 0 0 0
SA: Diogo Pacheco (Mitchell Taintor) 40’

Lineups

San Antonio FC (4-3-3): Richard Sanchez; Rece Buckmaster (Luke Haakenson, 76’), Jimmy Medranda, Alex Crognale, Mitchell Taintor; Jorge Hernandez, Dominick Hernandez (Lucio Berron, 90’), Almir de Jesus Soto; Juan Agudelo (Alexis Souahy, 77’), Diogo Pacheco (Alex Greive, 88’), Jake LaCava
Subs not used: Daniel Namani, Shannon Gomez, Sebastian Seiterle, Dmitri Erofeev

Monterey Bay FC (4-1-2-3): Nico Campuzano; Joel Garcia Jr., Carlos Guzmán, Nico Gordon, Miles Lyons; Pierce Gallaway; Ethan Bryant (Anton Søjberg, 72’), Xavi Gnaulati (Adrian Rebollar, 59’); Mayele Malango (Grant Robinson, 90+4’), Adam Larsson, Alex Dixon (Ilijah Paul, 72’)
Subs not used: Sam Gomez, Alex Lara, Jacob Muir

Stats Summary: SA / MB

Shots: 15 / 6
Shots on Goal: 4 / 0
Saves: 0 / 3
Corner Kicks: 3 / 4
Fouls: 12 / 16
Possession: 52.8% / 47.2%

Misconduct Summary

MB: Xavi Gnaulati (caution) 26’
SA: Jimmy Medranda (caution) 33’
SA: Mitchel Taintor (caution) 42’
MB: Miles Lyons (caution) 74’
SA: Dominick Hernandez (caution) 85’

Officials

Referee: Matt Thompson
Assistant Referee: Matt Trotter
Assistant Referee: Ricardo Ocampo
Fourth Official: Melvin Rivas