The San Jose State men’s soccer team continues to win after securing a hard-fought 3-2 win against Houston Baptist University Sunday at Spartan Soccer Complex.
The Spartans (9-5-3, 7-1-2 WAC) have won seven of their last nine games and maintain second place in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) with only one conference game left.
Head coach Simon Tobin said the team came into Sunday’s game with a defensive game plan to contain Houston’s (3-14, 1-9 WAC) offense.
“[HBU doesn’t] have a good record but I thought they were a very good attacking team,” Tobin said in a post-game interview. “So I thought, yeah, they were capable of scoring goals but I thought defensively that we were capable of opening them up.”
Even though the Spartans came into the game with a defensive mindset, the Huskies scored within 13 minutes.
Two minutes after HBU scored, SJSU defender Kasper Poulsgaard tied the game with a flawless header into the net.
However, the Huskies took the lead again 10 minutes before halftime making it 2-1.
SJSU wouldn’t go away quietly as senior defender Miguel Bermudez responded and tied the game again a few minutes after HBU’s second goal.
The game was tied at 2 goals a piece but Tobin said the Spartans played poorly in the first half.
He attributed the Spartans weak start to the game to player sluggishness from a quick turnaround from Friday’s double-overtime tie against Chicago State.
“I think we started poorly and then we made some changes and that didn't really work,” Tobin said. “So the guys that did start, they went back out there to begin the second half.”
Senior forward Rudi Castro said he thought the Spartans took control of the game in the second half by being composed on the ball and maintaining possession.
“We try to control the game. We didn't want to go back and forth, too many counterattacks. That's not our type of play,” Castro said in a post-game interview. “We live abroad on our feet. So we tried to take the air out of the game just a little bit and that was our game plan for the rest of the game.”
The Spartans continued to flow as the team fired 13 shots in the second half.
At one point, the ball pinballed around the Huskies penalty box, forcing them to scramble on defense as the ball came inches from going into the net.
“They were much, much better in the beginning of the second half . . . that's what won us the game, that first 20-to-25 minutes of the second half,” Tobin said. “We probably played our best soccer of the day.”
With the crowd roaring at SJSU’s persistent offense, Castro scored the winning goal in Minute 62 and the Spartans held off the Huskies until the final whistle blew.
Sunday’s game was also SJSU’s senior day, in which the seven seniors on the roster were honored. Castro said he was thrilled to have scored the winning goal.
“I'm definitely very happy. I know my teammates worked super hard for me as well so it's back and forth. It's a two way street,” Castro said. “So I think they're happier, if not, they're as happy as me when I score.”
SJSU will play its final conference game of the season on the road against Seattle University Saturday.
If the Spartans win or draw, they’ll maintain the second conference seed and automatically advance to the second round of the WAC tournament in Phoenix, Arizona.
If SJSU loses against SU, they’ll fall to the third seed and will play the sixth seed team in the tournament's first quarter finals on Nov. 10.
“In the end, we needed this win to stay in second place,” Tobin said. “So, destiny is still in our hands.”
