By Alejandra Vaca — Reporter
Warm and clear skies were the ideal weather conditions to play a soccer game, however, speedy winds were not in favor for San Jose State (5-1-2 WAC) as they fell to Air Force (4-4-1) 2-2 in penalty kicks.
The Spartans and Falcons played an intensive and aggressive first half.
Air Force’s offense pressured San Jose State playing them one-on-one. The Spartans, however, used the open spots against the Falcons tight defense to score.
Senior forward Rudi Castro put his defender under pressure and scored two goals within two minutes towards the end of the first half giving the Spartans a 2-0 lead. Castro finished with a total of six shots.
A minute later after Castro’s shot, Air Force found the back of the net and added a goal to the scoreboard. The Falcons sent the ball back to the net again in the last three minutes of the first half tying the score 2-2.
After playing 45 minutes in the second half, the Spartans tried to establish position to score, but neither them nor the Falcons could score.
The game resulted in two overtime games where both teams failed to score a goal. SJSU’s head coach Simon Tobin and Air Force’s Doug Hill decided who they were going to send in to the pitch for PKs.
Midfielder senior Max Allen from Liverpool successfully jump started the first penalty kick.
Castro did not have the right precision and completely missed the box adding pressure on senior midfielder Willy Miranda who successfully followed his shot.
The Spartans had an opportunity to make a comeback after the Falcons shot missed the net by hitting inside the bar.
Unfortunately for SJSU, Air Force’s goalkeeper stayed low and saved sophomore defender Kasper Poulsgaard’s shot ending the tournament in a loss for the Spartans.
SJSU finished the match with a 24-12 shot advantage and a 7-3 corner kicks.
The Spartans finished the season with seven conference honorees. Allen, Castro, Miranda, Poulsgaard, midfielder senior Carlos Gomez-Zavala, sophomore goalkeeper David Sweeney and freshmen defender Joel Garcia received All-WAC honors.
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