By Iber Moreno – Spear Reporter | SJSU men’s soccer high five each other in a 0-0 draw against The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Nov. 3. (Photo by Iber Moreno – The Spear)
San Jose State men’s soccer (4-7-7, 3-3-3 WAC) will advance to the semifinals of the WAC conference tournament after defeating number four Utah Valley Wolverines (8-6-4, 3-3-2 WAC) 1-0 in a hard fought game in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I think we earned the first half.” head coach Simon Tobin said. “It was a game that was going to be decided on one little thing.”
Tobin was right, one goal was the difference in the match.
The Spartans were fouled in the penalty box in the 82nd minute of the game, creating an opportunity for the Spartans to get on the board first.
Junior midfielder Angel Iniguez would score a game-winning penalty for the Spartans to go up 1-0 with only seven minutes left in the game.
Both teams played hard for a full 90 minutes knowing their season was on the line.
In the first half of the game the Spartans had only four shots and the Wolverines only had two with all shots away from the goal.
Iniguez and grad student defender Jarette Barajas were the only two to have shot on goal the entire game.
The match was a very defensive game both ways from the ball with a lot of fouls in the game. The Spartans had eight with two yellow cards and the Wolverines had 11 fouls with six yellow cards.
The second half of the game was more intense as the Wolverines started to attack more and put more pressure on the defense.
Junior goalkeeper Ronin Axelson had four saves in the second half and had zero in the first.
The Spartans defense held their ground till the very end as they would stop the Wolverines to win the game.
SJSU junior Niklas Dossmann, sophomore Ruben Flores-Thomas and senior Christian Powell kept it down for the defense for the full 90 minutes of the game.
The Spartans will now face number one seed San Diego State at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at GCU stadium in Phoenix to advance to the final.
