With just one week remaining in the season, the Oakland Roots secured a playoff spot with a victory over the Las Vegas Lights on Saturday night, October 19, at Cashman Field in Las Vegas. The victory secured the Roots’ berth in the postseason for the third time in four seasons.
Oakland took an early lead through Johnny Rodriguez, who netted his 11th goal of the season off a rebound to put his side up 1-0 against the Las Vegas Lights. Vegas equalized in the 12th minute after a quick restart led to a cross, which deflected off Oakland’s captain, Neveal Hackshaw, resulting in an own goal, tyng the game at 1-1.
The Lights forced Roots keeper Paul Blanchette into multiple huge saves to keep the game at 1-1 headed into the halftime break.
With a half-hour left in the game, the Roots scored against the run of play when Luis Sinisterra turned quickly to find the net, giving Oakland a 2-1 lead.
Johnny Rodriguez doubled Oakland’s lead when Irakoze Donasiyano found the team’s leading goal scorer for his 12th of the year, giving the Roots a commanding 3-1 advantage. Las Vegas pulled one back with a long-range strike from Valentin Noël to make it 3-2 in stoppage time.
With the victory, the Oakland Roots clinched a playoff spot. The squad will now return home for their final regular season match versus Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday, October 26, at Pioneer Stadium at CSU East Bay in Hayward.
Summary
Scoring:
- OAK: Johnny Rodriguez 3’
- LV: Neveal Hacksaw (own goal) 12’
- OAK: Luis Sinisterra 61’
- OAK: Johnny Rodriguez 72’
- LV: Valentin Noël 90+’
Discipline:
- OAK: Baboucarr Njie (yellow) 36’
- OAK: Memo Diaz (yellow) 89’
- OAK: Irakoze Donasiyano (yellow) 90+’
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Paul Blanchette, Justin Rasmussen (Trayvone Reid), Neveal Hackshaw, Gagi Margvelashvili, Memo Diaz, Camden Riley, Rafael Baca (Irakoze Donasiyano), Baboucarr Njie, Daniel Gomez (Niall Logue), Jose Luis Sinisterra (Ilya Alekseev), Johnny Rodriguez (Miche-Naider Chéry)
Unused subs: Dom Dwyer, Tim Syrel
Line: Shots: 13 | Shots On Goal: 5 | Corner Kicks: 7 | Fouls: 17 | Offside: 0 |
Las Vegas Lights FC
Lineup: George Marks, Grayson Doody, Maliek Howell (Charlie Adams), Joe Hafferty, Shawn Smart, J.C. Ngando (Andre Fortune), Ousman Jabang, Coleman Gannon (Khori Bennett), Valentin Noël, Christian Pinzón (Vaughn Covil), Solomon Asante (Joe Gyau)
Unused subs: Raiko Arozarena, Elias Gärtig,All Gue, Alexander Romero
Shots: 11 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 7 | Fouls: 7 | Offside: 1 |
