DAVIS, Calif. -- Helping spearhead a defense that held visiting San Jose State to a single shot on goal in the team's season opener on Aug. 26, UC Davis sophomore Roy Boateng was named the Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.

It is the first career weekly honor for the Rohnert Park, Calif., native, who earned Big West honorable mention honors and a spot on the league's all-freshman team a season ago. Boateng is the first player of the week from UC Davis since Lucas Mohageg (offensive) and Brian Ford (defensive) swept the weekly awards on Oct. 20, 2014.

Despite emerging from the opening weekend with a scoreless draw in their only match, the Aggies were able to post their first clean sheet of the year behind Boateng, who helped hold the Spartans' Rory Knibbs -- last year's leading scorer -- to just one shot off the bench, and limit Jonathan Colunga, who finished second on the team in scoring, to three shots -- all off target.

Boateng was one of three UC Davis players to gut out all 110 minutes in the opener alongside teammates Dashiell MacNamara and goalkeeper Armando Quezada, continuing a trend that has seen him play every minute of every match since the second contest of the 2015 season. The defensive unit also posting the team's first shutout since a 2-0 victory over UC Riverside back on Oct. 1, 2015.

UC Davis returns to the pitch for a pair of matches this Labor Day weekend, opening a five-match road trip in Stockton, Calif., on Thursday (Sept. 1), taking on Pacific at 7 p.m. The Aggies then head to the Bay Area to take on San Francisco on Sept. 4, also at 7 p.m.