Gerardo Gonzalez (@GerardoG209) – Soccer Beat Reporter
San Jose State men’s soccer senior goalkeeper David Sweeney has been a key piece for the backline as he leads the WAC with four shutouts this season.
With 12 games played and an average of 0.33 goals allowed per game, Sweeney helps the team get three points on many occasions due to his daring one-on-one stops. It is difficult to maintain a clean sheet and not every goalkeeper can do it.
His first clean sheet came in the first game of the season when SJSU beat CSU Bakersfield 2-0 at home. After a couple of games of the team struggling, Sweeney secured his second clean sheet against University of Pacific on Sept. 22, having three saves in each game respectively.
SJSU is unbeaten in the last eight games, having won seven and only tying one.
He secured his third clean sheet when The Spartans defeated Texas Rio Grande Valley 3-0. Although he only had one save in this game, it was an important one as the team was up 1-0.
“I mean it feels amazing, man we’re at three already? I think we just need to keep going forward and take it one game at a time to get more shutouts,” Sweeney said.
His latest clean sheet came this past weekend when the Spartans traveled to Utah Tech and came back to San Jose with a 2-0 win. Sweeney has a total of 35 saves so far, fifth on the list of most saves in the WAC at the moment.
With five conference games left to play, the senior goalkeeper has an opportunity to move his name up in the most saves list and potentially become number one along with the most shutouts.
Due to his presence in front of the net, the team is in a good position at the moment. His heroic stops have his name on top of the clean sheets leaderboard.
If Sweeney continues to play at the top of his game, The Spartans have a fighting chance to play for the WAC championship. Sweeney has a chance to be the nest goalkeeper in the WAC.