By Luke Thomas, October 14, 2025
The Cal Poly Pomona men’s soccer club has returned to the field for this year’s season, taking home three wins from its opening five games.
Starting in the last week of September, the Broncos opened off the season with two back-to-back wins, beginning the club’s potential run for nationals.
At the club’s opening game of the season Sept. 28, the Broncos secured their first win with a 2-1 comeback at the University of California, San Diego. Scoring a free kick against the Tritons, Gabriel Lopez began the Broncos’ comeback, followed by Josh Solis securing a winning penalty shot.
In the club’s following match Oct. 4, the Broncos met on the Bronco Activity Fields for the first home game of the season, where the club clutched a 5-4 win against University of California, Riverside. Club member Pedro Estrada secured the last-minute winning goal, snatching the club’s second win of the season.
“(It was) intense,” said aerospace engineering student Jesse Odhiambo. “We went up in the second half. It shows how we’re together strong as a team, so it’s a very good win.”
This past weekend the club competed in the Aztec Cup Oct. 10 to Oct. 12, a premier club soccer tournament featuring club teams from seven states along the West.
The Broncos faced off against San Diego State University and Loyola Marymount University on the first day of the tournament, taking home a 5-3 win against LMU. A match against University of California, Davis followed on the second day, where the club took a 1-0 loss.
The club’s next scheduled match is an away game against University of San Diego Oct. 18.
The men’s soccer club is one of the 15 collegiate sports club teams on campus, including tennis, volleyball and kendo. After tryouts were held at the end of August, the club consisted of 25 rostered players and 10 practice squad players.
The club holds its practices and scrimmages each Tuesday and Thursday to reinforce the Broncos’ tactics for two hours in the afternoon. The games occur every other week on Saturdays and Sundays, alternating between home games and away games against colleges in the West Coast Soccer Association Division I.
Future challengers for the Broncos this season include the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California.
“My main goal is to give it everything I got and try to win league and eventually move on to win playoffs,” said criminology student and club scheduler Nathan Magana.
Club president and computer engineering student Derek Jacoby’s main vision for the club is to develop his players to bring them closer to playing on CPP’s NCAA team, while also striving for the team to qualify for the NIRSA National Tournament.
“We obviously aim to finish first in the league within the Southern California division,” Jacoby said. “I think our aim is pretty realistic. We want to qualify for playoffs and compete in nationals this year.”
Based on the rankings in the West Coast, if the club is a top team, it’s invited to play in the Regional Playoffs the following year and is able to advance into nationals if successful in the playoffs. According to Jacoby, the Broncos didn’t qualify for nationals last year because of its ranking.
“(Reaching nationals) would be amazing, something that I’ve never done personally, so it’d be a different change,” Magana said.
With its eyes set on a run to nationals, the CPP men’s soccer club is all about growing through the sport they love while bringing home as many wins as they can score.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Men’s Soccer Club
