San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Niko Tsakiris celebrates his second goal of the match with his fellow teammates against San Diego FC at PayPal Park on Saturday APR 4, 2026. (San Jose Earthquakes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Niko Tsakiris made franchise history by joining some select company.

The San Jose Earthquakes midfielder recorded his first career brace as the Quakes dominated from start to finish in a 3-0 rout of San Diego FC on Saturday evening at PayPal Park.

San Jose has won two games in a row and five of their first six matches for its best start in franchise history. San Diego suffered its first loss of its MLS campaign after starting the season undefeated with points in its first five matches.

San Jose (5-1-0) struck first early in the first half. Preston Judd intercepted a back pass and quickly found Tsakiris along the left wing. The 20-year-old fifth year player dribbled into the box before roofing a left footed shot into the back of the net as a San Diego defender closed in on him for his first goal of the season in the 13th minute.

San Diego’s (3-1-2) high scoring attack had limited possession throughout the match as the pitch was tilted inside their defensive zone thanks to San Jose’s high press attack that kept the ball from the feet of Anders Dyers and leading goal scorer Marcus Ingvartsen.

The match quickly went south for SDFC when fullback Manu Duah pushed down Judd from behind after he made a move to get around Duah inside the box in the 28th minute. Referee Fotis Bazakos awarded a penalty kick to San Jose. After a VAR review, it was determined that Duah never made a play for the ball resulting in a red card and automatic ejection. San Diego played a man down for the final 62 minutes of the match.

Tsakiris completed his brace when slammed home the penalty kick into the upper right corner of the net beating his fellow Under-23 U.S. Men’s National Team teammate SDFC goalkeeper Duran Ferree in the 34th minute.

Tsakiris became the second youngest player in franchise history to record a brace. The youngest just happens to be the greatest American born soccer player ever in Landon Donovan.

The Earthquakes made it 3-0 just before halftime when Beau Leroux centered the ball from down the left sideline into the middle of the box where Judd one-timed it into the right corner of the net for his team leading third goal of the season in the third minute of stoppage time.

In the second half, San Jose took advantage of being up a man as they continued to create chances and kept the ball out of danger as head coach Bruce Arena subbed out five of his starters for a more defensive oriented lineup.

Quakes goalkeeper Daniel needed to make just one save to record his fifth clean sheet of the season. To date, Daniel has only conceded one goal on the season. Ferree kept the match from being a bigger blowout as he made seven saves on 10 shots on target in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with seven corner kicks. SDFC had five.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels out to the Midwest as they take on Sporting Kansas City on Saturday April 11 at 5:30pm at Sporting Park.