EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC (West-4, 9-7-5, 32 points) fell 5-2 on the road at H-E-B Park against Rio Grande Valley FC on Saturday night, ending its 2023 Copa Tejas campaign and an eight-match away undefeated streak.
El Paso would get the opportunity to open the scoring early after forward Aaron Gomez won a penalty in in the opening seconds of the match. Forward Luis “Lucho” Solignac would step up to take the penalty, burying the ball into the net to give El Paso the lead in the 3′ and ending a six-game streak without a goal.
RGV would find the equalizer minutes later, but El Paso would regain the lead in the 16′ courtesy of Gomez, with forward Ricardo Zacarias recording a beautiful nutmeg assist.
RGV would equalize once again and proceeded to score three more goals to regain and maintain the lead in the match.
FORECAST: 93ºF, clear skies, windy
ATTENDANCE: 4,730
TEAM NOTES
- As a result of tonight’s loss, El Paso’s eight-game undefeated away streak has been snapped. El Paso was the last team in the USL Championship to remain undefeated on the road this season.
- Defender Jose Carrillo made his debut with Locomotive in tonight’s match as a starter.
- Forward Luis “Lucho” Solignac scored the opening goal for Locomotive to bring his season total to nine goals and snap a six-game scoreless streak.
- With his goal tonight, forward Aaron Gomez managed to score in both 2023 regular season matches against RGV.
- Forward Ricardo Zacarias now jumps to the top of Locomotive’s assist leaderboards after recording his third assist of the season.
- Goalkeeper Benny Diaz recorded five saves tonight, the fourth time he’s done so this season.
SCORING SUMMARY
- ELP 1 – Luis Solignac (Penalty) 3′
- RGV 1 – Taylor Davila (Juan Galindrez) 7′
- ELP 2 – Aaron Gomez (Ricardo Zacarias) 16′
- RGV 2 – Taylor Davila 20′
- RGV 3 – Eric Calvillo (Own Goal) 34′
- RGV 4 – Wilmer Cabrera Jr. (Juan Galindrez) 59′
- RGV 5 – Jose Torres (Penalty) 73′
LINEUPS
ELP – (4-2-3-1) Benny Diaz, Bence Pavkovics, Jose Carrillo (Erik McCue), Eder Borelli – C, Marc Navarro (Chris Garcia), Louis Herrera, Eric Calvillo, Petar Petrovic (Miles Lyons), Aaron Gomez, Ricardo Zacarias (Denys Kostyshyn), Luis Solignac (Emmanuel Sonupe)
Subs Not Used: Javier Garcia, Luis Moreno
RGV – (3-4-3) Tyler Deric, Garbiel Benitez, Wahab Ackwei, Erik Pimentel, Ricky Ruiz (Frank Lopez,), Juan Cabezas – C (Jose Torres), Jonathan Ricketts, Taylor Davila, Christiano Francois (Eric Kinzer), Juan Galindrez (Christian Pinzon), Wilmer Cabrera Jr.
Subs Not Used: Carlos Merancio, Ian Cerro, Tomas Ritondale
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
- ELP – Ricardo Zacarias (Yellow) 24′, Eric Calvillo (Yellow) 40′, Aaron Gomez (Yellow) 51′
- RGV – Eric Kinzer (Yellow) 70′, Frank Lopez (Yellow) 86′
MATCH STATS: ELP | RGV
GOALS: 2|5
ASSISTS: 1|2
POSS. %: 50|50
SHOTS: 8|15
SHOTS ON GOAL: 4|9
SAVES: 5|2
FOULS: 18|13
OFFSIDES: 1|3
CORNERS: 2|6
UP NEXT: Saturday, August 5 at Miami FC. Kickoff at 5 p.m. MT at FIU Stadium. El Paso Locomotive FC opens the month of August with a trip to Miami FC.