SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Sophomore quarterback Josh Johnson made his first collegiate start a memorable one, and the San Diego defense didn't blink in the face of Azusa Pacific's no-huddle offense as USD dumped Azusa Pacific, 30-6, in both teams' season-opener.

Johnson completed 23-of-34 passes for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns to spark a Torero offense that posted the most points on a Cougar team since 2001 and hand Azusa Pacific its worse loss in 4 years. Johnson's 18-yard corner fade to Nick Garton with just over a minute left in the first quarter gave the Toreros a 7-3 lead that it would continually build on throughout the rest of the night.

In the second half, Johnson connected with Dustin Owen on an 11-yard scoring strike over the middle and then hit Matt Koller on a 21-yard pass to complete the night's scoring.

Azusa Pacific struggled to find holes in the USD defense and was held without a TD for only the third time in the past 5 years.

"We were soundly beat," said Cougar coach Peter Shinnick. "There was nothing after the game that you could look at and feel real good about what we did tonight. They beat us in every facet of the game."

The Cougars scored on a pair of Mike Betancourth field goals of 22 and 45 yards. His first gave the Cougars a short-lived 3-0 lead. USD answered on the next drive, going 68 yards on 10 plays, capped by Johnson's toss to Garton.

Azusa Pacific came right back on another Betancourth field goal to trim the Torero lead to 7-6 less than a minute into the second quarter. That was as close as the Cougars would get the rest of the night.

Cougar quarterback Sean Davis completed 17-of-31 passes for 222 yards, but his back-to-back interceptions in the second quarter deflated a Cougar offense that had amassed 150 of its eventual 223 yards of total offense to that point in the game. From then on, the Cougars struggled to move the ball against a USD defense that got stronger as the night wore on.

The victory snaps San Diego's 3-game losing streak to Azusa Pacific.