By Gabriel Luis (@gabelun):
After coming out on top in five of the six remaining games in the season, fourth seed San Jose State men’s soccer team (7-10-1, 5-4-1 WAC) will be facing University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (7-6-3, 4-4-2 WAC) for their first matchup in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday.
The last time the Spartans and the Broncs went head to head, San Jose State won 1-0 off of a junior defender Andrew Mendoza goal in the 72nd minute.
UTRGV will be entering the tournament on a two-game win streak after defeating Houston Baptist and Incarnate Word.
Even though the Broncs might be below San Jose State, the sophomore midfielder Ilias Kosmidis, who leads the Broncs’ goal tally will be SJSU’s biggest threat on the offensive side.
Kosmidis has played a big role in the past few games, bagging an assist and a goal against Incarnate Word.
Regardless of UTRGV’s offense, San Jose State’s defense has played a large part in how the team has been performing as it finished with four shutouts in the final six games.
The Spartans will look to senior forward Jeremy Romero to convert scoring opportunities against the Broncs and hopefully throughout the rest of the tournament.
Romero leads SJSU’s scoring list with nine goals and is the fourth best goal scorer in the WAC conference.
San Jose State seems to have struggled throughout the season with goal scoring, as it has only won two games this year with a goal differential of two or more.
If SJSU can become victorious over UTRGV tomorrow, it will face first seed Air Force in the semifinals on Friday. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.