Oakland found a late winner from Tucker Lepley just 28 minutes into his club debut, as the Roots [1] defeated visiting El Paso Locomotive FC 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night, May 9, earning all three points and moving into a tie for second place on the USL Championship Western Conference table.
[2]Oakland eventually earned the win, but the beginning of the match was far from what the club was looking for, as El Paso netted a goal that was disallowed for offsides in just the second minute, and followed that with an official tally just seconds later in the third when Alvaro Quezada played a pass into the six-yard box to Rubio Rubin, who netted it to make the score 1-0.
Following that goal, the Roots began to find their footing in the match, testing Locomotive’s back line with deep lobs into the attacking third and maintaining more possession with cleaner passing.
Things changed drastically in the 18th minute when one of those long balls, off the foot of Neveal Hackshaw—in his 100th appearance in an Oakland kit—found Wolfgang Prentice alone behind the defense. El Paso’s Palermo Ortiz made contact with Prentice, causing him to lose his balance. Because it was a denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Ortiz was shown a straight red card, forcing Locomotive to play the remaining 70+ minutes down a man.
Oakland immediately began to pester El Paso’s defense, finding plenty of space to work with and maintaining possession while looking for openings to exploit. After nearly 30 minutes of constant pressure, the Roots finally broke through with an equalizer. An outlet pass to the left side from Hackshaw found Jesus De Vicente, who curled a cross into the six-yard box and found reigning USL Championship Player of the Week Peter Wilson, who deposited his team-leading fifth goal of the season to make it 1-1 in added time.
Oakland continued to dominate the pitch with the benefit of being up a player. A go-ahead goal from their newest addition Tucker Lepley shook two defenders near the top of the El Paso box before striking an absolute rocket into the top left corner less than 30 minutes into his club debut to give the Roots a 2-1 lead in the 83rd minute.
The Roots thus pocketed three points in league play and will return to Prinx Tires USL Cup action for their next match, hosting rivals Sacramento Republic FC at the Coliseum next Saturday, May 16 at 5 p.m.
Talking with the head coach
After the match Roots Head Coach Ryan Martin offered his thoughts on the team’s performance and end result.
“Proud, obviously, to get three points against a really good El Paso team,” Coach Ryan said. “I was disappointed with the start to the match. I thought we came out a little bit slow and sluggish. The words I’d use are ‘lacked urgency’ in terms of our performance in the first half in particular, and I think at the end we had a couple of turnovers that we could have managed a little bit better.”
Noting that the team has to “keep learning and growing,” the coach added, “but with that said, we created a lot. We found more patience as the game went along. We got better looks because we got into better positions and got into the gold zone, and it allowed us to get a big three points. So that’s a massive result for us against a really good team.”
Summary
Scoring:
- ELP: Rubio Rubin 3’
- OAK: Peter Wilson 45’
- OAK: Tucker Lepley 83’
Discipline:
- ELP: Palermo Ortiz (red card) 18’
- ELP: Rubio Rubin (yellow card) 59’
- OAK: Florian Valot (yellow card) 90’+
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Tommy McCabe, Bobosi Byaruhanga (Tucker Lepley), Wolfgang Prentice, Peter Wilson, Jesus De Vicente (Jackson Kiil), Neveal Hackshaw, Keegan Tingey (Tyler Gibson), Bertin Jacquesson (Florian Valot), Raphael Spiegel, Michael Edwards, Faysal Bettache (Danny Trejo)
Unused subs: Kendall McIntosh, Ali Elmasnaouy, Bradley Roberson
Line: Shots: 15 | Shots On Goal: 4 | Corner Kicks: 6 | Fouls: 7 | Offside: 10
El Paso Locomotive FC
Lineup: Abraham Romero, Eric Calvillo (Danny Gomez), Amando Moreno (Diego Abita), Rubio Rubin, Gabriel Torres (Noah Dollenmayer), Alvaro Quezada, Alex Mendez (Omar Mora), Kofi Twumasi, Palermo Ortiz, Robert Coronado (Carl Sainte), Tony Alfaro
Unused subs: Sebastian Mora-Mora, Nicolas Cardona, Kenny Hoban
Line: Shots: 5 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 1 | Fouls: 7 | Offside: 2