EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC (West-7, 13-13-8, 47 points) put on an impressive display Saturday night to win 2-1 on the road at Oakland Roots SC, officially securing its return to the USL Championship Playoffs.
El Paso would set the tone early, opening the scoring in the seventh minute courtesy of forward Emmanuel Sonupe.
Defender Noah Dollenmayer would then score a header in the 14′, recording his first professional career goal to double the lead.
Oakland had in opportunity to put one in before the end of the first half, but goalkeeper Benny Diaz – as he has all season – would come up huge once again as he kept out the penalty shot from former teammate Johnny Rodriguez.
Oakland would manage to score early on in the second half, but El Paso’s defensive discipline and organization held strong to keep the Roots attack at bay.
El Paso would hold through a nail-biting second half to clinch its spot in the 2023 postseason as the #7 seed, making a successful return to the playoffs after missing out for the first time in 2022.
Locomotive will now face off against #2 seed Orange County SC at Championship Soccer Stadium for the Western Conference Quarterfinals next Saturday, October 21 at 8:30 p.m. MT.
FORECAST: 63ºF, partly cloudy
ATTENDANCE: 6,135
TEAM NOTES
- Tonight’s win was the first for El Paso in the all-time series against Oakland.
- Forward Emmanuel Sonupe scored his third goal of the 2023 regular season.
- Defender Noah Dollenmayer scored his first professional career goal tonight.
- El Paso have not conceded a goal in their last three penalty shoot-outs. Goalkeeper Benny Diaz blocked two of those three, against Sacramento Republic FC and Oakland Roots SC respectively. The third was kept out by the crossbar in the match against Charleston Battery.
- Midfielders Eric Calvillo and Petar Petrovic both brought their assist tallies to four this season, joint assist leaders alongside Marc Navarro and Denys Kostyshyn.
- Petar Petrovic closes the season as Locomotive’s leader in goal contributions: 11 (seven goals, four assists).
- El Paso close the season with its best away record in club history (25 points; eight wins, four draws)
- El Paso close out the regular season as the only team in the league to not concede a red card.
SCORING SUMMARY
- ELP 1 – Emmanuel Sonupe (Eric Calvillo) 7′
- ELP 2 – Noah Dollenmayer (Petar Petrovic) 14′
- OAK 1 – Anuar Pelaez 47′
LINEUPS
ELP – (5-3-2) Benny Diaz, Marc Navarro, Erik McCue, Noah Dollenmayer, Petar Petrovic (Ricardo Zacarias), Miles Lyons, Louis Herrera, Liam Rose, Eric Calvillo – C, Emmanuel Sonupe (Nick Hinds), Aaron Gomez
Subs Not Used: Javier Garcia, Jose Carrillo, Denys Kostyshyn, Chris Garcia
OAK – (3-4-3) Paul Blanchette, Daniel Barbir, Tarek Morad (Etsgar Cruz), Emrah Klimenta, Baboucarr Njie (Luis Saldana), Daniel Gomez (Napo Matsoso), Irakoze Donasiyano (Trayvone Reid), Guillermo Diaz, Lindo Mfeka (Anuar Pelaez), Johnny Rodriguez, Jeciel Cedeño
Subs Not Used: Timothy Syrel, Wolfgang Prentice
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
- ELP – Erik McCue (Yellow) 19′, Louis Herrera (Yellow) 31′, Eric Calvillo (Yellow) 38′, Miles Lyons (Yellow) 76′, Ricardo Zacarias (Yellow) 82′
- OAK – Johnny Rodriguez (Yellow) 15′, Lindo Mfeka (Yellow) 34′, Guillermo Diaz (Yellow) 65′, Guillermo Diaz (Red) 90+2′
MATCH STATS: ELP | OAK
GOALS: 2|1
ASSISTS: 2|0
POSS. %: 37|63
SHOTS: 5|19
SHOTS ON GOAL: 3|5
SAVES: 5|1
FOULS: 16|12
OFFSIDES: 3|3
CORNERS: 1|12
UP NEXT: USL Championship Western Conference Quarterfinal against Orange County SC at Championship Soccer Stadium. Kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MT Saturday, October 21.