By Alexis Corona – Spear Reporter | Junior forward Diogo Baptista warms up before SJSU’s matchup against UC Davis on Sept. 27. (Photo by Alexis Corona – Spear Reporter)
San Jose State men’s soccer (1-4-4) has now recorded its sixth consecutive game without a win after tying 2-2 against UC Davis (4-2-3).
A total of 25 fouls were called in Friday’s game as SJSU picked up 13 to UC Davis’ 12.
“We all stuck to the mud and just worked our heads off as much as we could,” senior defender Christian Powell said.
SJSU would concede a penalty in the 55th minute after junior defender Niklas Dossmann committed a foul inside the penalty area.
UC Davis’ junior forward Cason Goodman would connect from the penalty spot to give his team the lead.
The Spartans would fight back immediately to tie up the score in the 56th minute after Junior midfielder Angel Iniguez perfectly hit a free-kick into the bottom right corner of the goal.
“His quality of set piece, especially him as a 10, is really good and it always gives us a chance,” SJSU head coach Simon Tobin said.
SJSU would respond again in the 68th minute with a free-kick crossed by Iniguez into the center of the penalty box that Powell headered into the net.
“Before the game, we go over it probably for about 30 minutes, set pieces overall,” Iniguez said. “So I think that’s helped.”
After a hard foul, a straight red card was assessed to Aggies’ junior midfielder Lucas Fernandez-Kim in the 70th minute.
During a dispute, Tobin received a red card for abusive language towards the head referee.
Just when it looked like SJSU was running away with the victory, Aggies’ freshman forward Gavin Leypon scored a game-tying goal in the 87th minute.
“Obviously we went up and we get all the confidence to go up two to one, and then just got to make sure we can finish out the game,” said Powell.
The Spartans are scheduled to play Air Force at 6 p.m. Thursday at Cadet Soccer Stadium.
“With all the work that we put in, I think we’ve set ourselves up for good result moving forward,” said Powell.
