Following their triumph in the 2025 Triton Invitational Tournament a few weeks prior, the Tritons returned to Muir to play their first home match of the second half of their league season. They would face city rivals San Diego State, the team the Tritons had beaten at the NIRSA Regionals in October to qualify for Nationals; this only added to the drama surrounding the game. 

The Tritons continued using the more attacking 3-4-3 formation they had been using since the start of the calendar year. The Tritons lined up with Jorge Mendoza in goal; with Lucas Sherles, Jaydon Lovell, and David Contreras in defense; with Pedro Teixeira, Jorge Rodriguez, Lucas Venetoulias, and Antonio Lopez in midfield; and, lastly, with Jake Honma, Vismay Manoj, and Kalani Takamura in attack. 

In the early exchanges, the Tritons struggled to keep possession of the ball, but their solid defensive shape meant that SDSU had difficulties creating goal-scoring opportunities. The Tritons were well-organized and managed to create a couple of decent counter-attacking situations; unfortunately, both Jake and Kalani saw their efforts on goal miss the target. Around the 20th-minute mark, Jorge Rodriguez managed to win the ball back near the SDSU box, where he found Antonio. Antonio was dragged down, and the referee awarded the Tritons a free kick. From the ensuing free kick, Lucas Venetoulias took advantage of a poorly aligned wall and poor positioning from the SDSU goalkeeper by firing the free kick to the bottom left-hand corner of the goal. The goalkeeper was easily beaten, and the Tritons took a 1–0 lead. This goal for the Tritons helped them gain some momentum, and they managed to get a better foothold in the match. They started to gain control of the match, although SDSU continued to probe when they were on the ball. A goal-line clearance made by David right before halftime meant the Tritons were leading 1–0 at the break.

Halftime seemed to kill any positive momentum that the Tritons had. They came out very sloppily: misplacing passes, missing tackles, not being aggressive in their press, and the result was a series of crosses for SDSU, one of which found the SDSU striker. He calmly placed his finish into the far corner and gave the visitors the equalizing goal. The Tritons tried to regenerate the momentum they had lost and created some goal-scoring chances. They were unable to convert, and that further confirmed to SDSU that they were in the ascendancy. Eventually, the pressure got to UCSD and some sloppy build-out play led to a penalty kick being awarded to the visitors. The penalty was converted, and SDSU took a 2–1 lead with roughly 20 minutes left in the game.  The Tritons pushed hard to get the equalizing goal and narrowly did so when the SDSU goalkeeper barely tipped a header by David over the crossbar. Despite their efforts at the end, the Tritons were unable to get that second goal, and the game ended 2–1 in favor of SDSU. 

The team was expectedly disappointed following the defeat, and there was no shying away from the fact that the team did not perform to the level required of them. It will be important that the team puts this result behind them because they have a series of tough league matches coming up before playoffs. The Tritons have a chance to rebound next weekend with a doubleheader, hosting Cal State Pomona on Muir next Saturday and visiting UCLA next Sunday.