EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC (West-8, 10-11-5, 35 points) fell 2-1 to Monterey Bay FC on Saturday evening at Southwest University Park.
“It was one of our best performances of the year and the boys stuck to the match plan, but this is the game of football… the money is made in the boxes and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of it,” Head Coach and Technical Director Brian Clarhaut said.
Despite dominating play in the first half, Monterey Bay would open the scoring just before the break.
Locomotive would come into the second half immediately applying pressure in Monterey Bay’s box looking to tie the match up quickly. Their efforts would pay off in the 50′ when Petar Petrovic drove the ball into the top of the box and placed it perfectly into the far corner to give El Paso the equalizer.
Monterey Bay would, however, regain the lead in the 75′ off an unlucky Erik McCue deflection to take the three points. El Paso now shift focus to the start of a three-game roadtrip beginning with Orange County SC next Saturday, September 9.
FORECAST: 90ºF, clear skies
ATTENDANCE: 7,144
TEAM NOTES
- With his start tonight, Eric Calvillo made his 100th appearance in the USL Championship, 56 of those matches with Locomotive.
- Arun Basuljevic made his Locomotive debut tonight, coming in as a second half substitute against his former side.
- Petar Petrovic scored his sixth goal of the season.
- Marc Navarro recorded his fourth assist to claim sole possession as El Paso’s 2023 regular season assist leader.
SCORING SUMMARY
- MB 1 – Alex Dixon 44′
- ELP 1 – Petar Petrovic (Marc Navarro) 50′
- MB 2 – Sean Okoli (Adrian Rebollar) 75′
LINEUPS
ELP – (5-3-2) Benny Diaz, Marc Navarro, Erik McCue, Noah Dollenmayer, Miles Lyons (Arun Basuljevic), Petar Petrovic, Liam Rose, Eric Calvillo – C, Denys Kostyshyn (Nick Hinds), Aaron Gomez (Chris Garcia), Ricardo Zacarias (Emmanuel Sonupe)
Subs Not Used: Javier Garcia, Jose Carrillo, Louis Herrera
MB – (5-4-1) Carlos Herrera, Kai Greene, Hugh Roberts, Alex Lara, Morey Doner, Sam Gleadle, Rafael Baca, James Murphy (Adrian Rebollar), Alex Dixon (Walmer Martinez), Chase Boone (Jesse Maldonado)(Jesus Enriquez), Christian Volesky (Sean Okoli)
Subs Not Used: Antony Siaha
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
- ELP – Chris Garcia (Yellow) 90+3′
- MB – N/A
MATCH STATS: ELP | MB
GOALS: 1|2
ASSISTS: 1|1
POSS. %: 58|42
SHOTS: 19|9
SHOTS ON GOAL: 6|4
SAVES: 1|4
FOULS: 12|10
OFFSIDES: 0|1
CORNERS: 10|1
UP NEXT: Saturday, September 9 at Orange County SC. Kickoff at 8 p.m. MT from Championship Soccer Stadium and available on ESPN+.