The San José State men’s soccer team defeated Air Force 1-0 in its first Western Athletic Conference (WAC) game of the season at the Spartan Soccer Complex on Thursday.
The Spartans (4-3-3, 1-0-0 WAC) outshot the Falcons (0-9-1, 0-1-0 WAC) 10-9 and scored early in the 26th minute by sophomore defender Josh Lucas assisted by senior defender Joel Garcia Jr.
Lucas’ goal marked the first in his collegiate career. He said scoring the goal was a great feeling and that he wasn’t looking for much on the field when he scored.
“It was just a great ball by Joel, and I finished it off,” Lucas said. “I probably should have came over here to celebrate with the boys, but you learn from it.”
SJSU head coach Simon Tobin said he was impressed by the aggressive play on behalf of his defenders.
“Those are my two fullbacks. So although they’re defenders, Joel [Garcia] made the assist, Josh [Lucas] got the goal. In the first half, we were a very attacking team,” Tobin said.
Tobin said the first conference game always has higher stakes.
“Air Force had been struggling a little bit this year, but when you start conference [play] it's a whole new season,” Tobin said. “I think we played really well the first half, but I thought we were quite poor in the second half, but just about did enough to get the win,”
Tobin also said his team had a good idea of what it was going up against a disciplined Falcon team.
“Air Force, just by their nature, they work really hard and they never give up. Probably our preparation for this game is a little bit more mental,” said Tobin. “Probably out of all the teams we play, one of the hardest working. It's just a mentality, I suppose, from the Air Force.”
SJSU tied their season high with 15 total fouls with 9 fouls coming in the second half of the match.
Goalkeeper David Sweeney tied the all-time record for most career shutouts by a Spartan goalkeeper on Thursday night, recording his 18th career shutout.
Sweeney had one save against Air Force and sits second in WAC in goals against average.
“They're a tough opponent because they just worked really hard,” Sweeny said. “We try to match that with our ball playing and how hard we work.
