SAN FRANCISCO – High tempo and aggressive offense were front and center in USF's 4-3 loss to Air Force on Sunday afternoon at Negoesco Stadium. USF (2-5-0) fell into a 3-1 hole, but picked up goals from Kevin De La Torre and David Garrett to climb back in before Air Force's Austin Dewing netted the game winner in the 89th minute.
 
Leon Schwarzer also tallied his second score of the season for USF.
 
"It's not so much today's game, but we need to get better on our backline," said head coach Eddie Soto, whose squad has had five of its seven contests this year decided by one goal. "We've been giving up too many goals and today we gave up two easy goals and that doesn't help keep us in games. To play the way we did today and not get a result was really frustrating, but we'll just have to keep working and get ourselves ready for Stanford next week."
 
The Dons fell behind early when Dewing tallied the first goal of the match in the 8th minute after weaving his way into the box from the right wing and slotting his shot inside the far post, giving Air Force an early 1-0 lead.
 
The Dons stayed aggressive, however, tying the game at 1-1 with Schwarzer's goal in the 24th minute, a beautiful give-and-go in the box with Santiago Digiuseppe offering the no-look backwards flip that setup Schwarzer right in front of the net.  
 
The high tempo continued as Air Force (5-2-0) answered right back in the 28th minute when Klint Parker bolted a 15 yard strike to give the Falcons the 2-1 advantage that led into halftime.
 
The score did little to tell the story of the first half that saw USF outshoot Air Force 14-3 and keep the offensive pressure on the Falcon defense throughout the majority of the frame.
 
The physicality sparked immediately as the second half started with two yellow cards being issued to AJ Esparza and Trey Pujats of Air Force. As the 65th minute approached, Tucker Axhoj kept Air Force in front with a goal off a low cross to extend the lead to 3-1.
 
With the Falcons holding onto their 3-1 advantage, De La Torre cut the lead to one with a well-placed header lofted over the keeper in the 73rd minute.
 
As the match reached its 80th minute, Garrett tied it at 3-3 with a wide open center box goal when Joshua Smith found Garrett spring open for a one-on-one with Air Force keeper John Wendt.
 
USF's defense was sparked with a number of impressive stops by USF keeper Andre Glasnovic, including a diving save in the 86th minute off of Parker's sprinting run up the wing.

The rally would not be enough, however, as Dewing scored his second goal of the game for the game-winner with a minute and a half left as he teamed with Tucker Bone for a give-and-go that found the back of the net from about eight yards out.
 
The Dons' offense recorded season-highs in shots (23) and shots on goal (14), in addition to its highest scoring output of the season. USF held a 23-14 advantage in shots on the day and 6-4 edge in corner kicks.
 
"We're creating chances," added Soto. "On Friday night we created chances but didn't score, so it's nice to see us taking advantage of those chances."
 
Glasnovic turned in five saves in goals for USF.  

UP NEXT: USF will wrap up nonconference play next weekend when they take on No. 25 Stanford (3-1-3) Friday night at 7 p.m. at Negoesco Stadium, followed by a 4 p.m. home tilt against UC Riverside on Sunday. USF's broadcast team of Charles Wollin (play-by-play) and Joe Dugan (analyst) will bring the action live on TheW.tv for both matches.