1948 Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference Champions
Head Coach: Gus Donoghue
Overall Record: 7-1-2 NCISC Record: 5-1-0
All-NCISC Team: Angelo Carmassi, Robert Lee, Joe Matute, Steve Negoesco, Ben Toda
Most Goals: Dick Baptista (17)
USF Hall-of-Famers: Dick Baptista, Angelo Carmassi, Robert Lee, Steve Negoesco, Gus Donaghue
The Dons won the first of 11 straight Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference titles with a 7-1-2 overall record and a 5-1-0 mark in conference play. Angelo Carmassi, Robert Lee, Joe Matute, Steve Negoesco and Ben Toda all earned All-Conference honors and Dick Baptista topped the squad with 17 goals scored.
Negoesco was a sophomore at the time and would go on to spend more than 40 years affiliated with the USF soccer program as a player and coach. The Dons only lost two games on the Hilltop over his four-year playing career and he was named first team All-Conference all four years he played with the Green and Gold.
Did You Know? Steve Negoesco came to USF in 1947 from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He was in San Francisco to visit his brother and was taking a taxi through the city when the cab driver passed by St. Ignatius Church and the USF campus. “I asked the cab driver what it was and he said it was the University of San Francisco and that it was really a good school,” remembered Negoesco. “My brother suggested I go to school out here and that’s how I came to USF.”
They Said It: “I told him I wanted to play soccer here and what I had done in the past as a player,” Steve Negoesco recalls meeting USF coach Gus Donoghue when he tried out for the USF team in 1947. “Gus let me try out and his attitude was, show me what you can do, don’t tell me what you’ve done in the past. Gus put me at left halfback and also let me play on the Olympic Club team, where I played center forward.” Negoesco scored 21 goals in his first six games with the Olympic Club team, a record that still stands today.
