By Gabriel Luis (@gabelun):
After defeating the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 2-0 in the quarter finals, San Jose State men’s soccer (8-10-1, 5-4-1 WAC) will take on top seed Air Force (14-1-3, 8-0-2 WAC) on Friday in the semi-finals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Falcons will be playing their first tournament match against SJSU after a first-round bye given to the school with the best record in the regular season.
Air Force dominated the WAC all season long, losing only once and coming away with an undefeated regular season.
The last time the two teams met, San Jose State held its own to start the game but eventually got crushed 4-0 by the Falcons.
After a scoreless first half, changes were made to the Spartans’ formation and they were punished for it later on.
It was not until SJSU head coach Simon Tobin implemented changes in the second half that led to Air Force’s initial breakdown of San Jose State’s defense.
Tobin added another forward to the attacking line which ultimately took away from the Spartans defense and Air Force took advantage.
Even though San Jose State only has a .447 win percentage compared to the .861 percentage of Air Force, the semi-final match is still up for grabs as San Jose State has been on a hot streak winning six of its last seven since mid-October.
Air Force will be looking to junior midfielder Tucker Bone and junior forward Austin Dewing to put away the Spartans as both players are the top goal-scorers for the Falcons.
The two are Air Force’s flamethrowers as Dewing has seven goals and Bone has five, respectfully, in 18 matches.
Both players have also shared the ball with seven assists apiece.
San Jose State’s defense, however, has been performing well in the past few games, having conceded just three goals and logging six clean sheets in the past seven games.
This will be SJSU’s most difficult game this year in a do-or-die collision with No. 1 Air Force.
Kick off for the semi-final match is at 4 p.m.
