By Ricardo Garcia — Reporter
San Jose State men’s soccer (1-1-0) dropped their home opener to Sacramento State (1-2-0) by a score of 3-2.
From the opening whistle, it was a battle by both teams to control the ball with San Jose getting the advantage early on.
SJSU came out hot in the first half, playing tight defense and shutting down any offensive chances the Hornets created.
“The defensive side is incredible and it starts with the forwards,” said midfielder Willy Miranda. “We all have to defend and that’s the mentality we have.”
San Jose had some solid looks on offense in the first half, but could not capitalize on any opportunity to score.
The Spartans’ defense continued to hold on strong up until the 35th minute when Sacramento forward Jhared Wilcot scored the opening goal of the game.
This was a huge momentum swing for the Hornets’ offense as they continued to create scoring chances in the final minutes of the first half.
The Spartans were put in a similar situation in their previous match against CSU Bakersfield being down 1-0 heading into halftime.
“We know we have quite a good team this year, we don’t panic.” said head coach Simon Tobin. “Even at 2-0 we feel quite comfortable that we can play with most teams.”
Both teams came out with high energy in the second half which led to some solid chances to score.
Ultimately Hornets midfielder Oscar Govea found an opening at the 55th minute to put Sacramento State up 2-0.
The Spartans continued to push the pace on offense to try and get a tally on the board and break the ice.
Their persistence paid off as senior midfielder Willy Miranda found the back of the net to secure his second goal of the season.
SJSU s did not stop there, as they were able to even the score six minutes later, courtesy of senior defender Omar Lemus who also tallied his second goal of the season.
With the game tied both teams continued to battle for the ball in order to break the tie.
After a plethora of shot attempts by the Hornets, forward Micheal Gonzalez broke the tie and put the Hornets up 3-2 with just a little over ten minutes left to play.
The Spartans made one final push to try to even up the score, but could not do so as time eventually expired.
“We can’t point fingers other than at ourselves and that’s what we should be doing.” said senior midfielder Finlay Wood. “We need to improve on our mistakes and capitalize on our positives.”
The Spartans will remain at home as they will host UC Davis this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. on the WAC Digital Network.
