Men’s soccer preview: SJSU looking to cap off road-trip with a win

By Benny GarciaEditor

San Jose State men’s soccer (2-1-1) heads into Moraga to take on Saint Mary’s University (3-2).

The Spartans are coming off an exciting double-overtime match-up against No. 20 ranked Stanford on Saturday night.

There were few players donning the blue-and-gold who deserve more recognition from the game than Sophomore goalkeeper Eric Waltz, who made seven saves in the draw against the Cardinal.

It was a career game for the San Jose native, whose career-high in saves was previously four.

While the game ended in a draw, both teams did their best to hit the back of the net.

Stanford was relentless offensively, but the Spartans were able to edge them out defensively.

The Cardinal managed to put up 19 shot opportunities, with seven of those being on-goal but were denied.

SJSU on the other hand was controlled quite well by the strong Stanford defense as they could only collect seven-shot opportunities with four of those on goal.

Nonetheless, even after playing 110 minutes, the match ended in a draw.

Now the Spartans look to pick themselves up and take a win from SMC.

The Gaels have been playing steadily over their first few matches of the season.

However, they are coming off a 1-0 loss last Friday against a hot Grand Canyon University squad in Arizona.

In that game, Gaels’ defense allowed seven shots-on-goal and twelve shot opportunities for the Lopes.

Similar to the Spartans, SMC allowed a ton of looks to the opposition, but only mustered up five-shot opportunities of their own with three of those being shots-on-goal.

The game will undoubtedly come down to which team’s defense will bend or break.

You can catch the action today at 4:00 p.m. on the WCC Network.

Follow Benny on Twitter: @TheJetTalk

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