Photo: Twitter/copatejas
EL PASO (Fwrd Axis) — San Antonio FC captured their first Copa Tejas trophy with a 1-0 victory over El Paso Locomotive FC at Southwest University Park on Saturday night.
The victory gives San Antonio their first-ever trophy in club history and gives SAFC their fifth consecutive win, a season-high, and moves them six points ahead of both San Diego and Colorado Springs for first place in the USL Championship Western Conference.
“Incredibly proud of the team, to win the club’s first trophy,” San Antonio FC Head Coach Alen Marcina said. “That will be an experience that our guys will remember. It’s exciting to earn the three points, and also to get to bring the cup home with us.”
The first half saw both sides come out strong on the attack. San Antonio nearly had a goal in the opening moments but two shots from Samuel Adeniran went off the bar, making it a scoreless tie going into the second half.
The second half opened with SAFC finding the back of the net. Santiago Patino scored off the feed from Justin Dhillon, putting the visitors up a goal in the 48th minute.
The goal was the fifth for Patino on the season as he has now scored four goals in the last three matches, giving him three-straight matches with a score.
“I’m feeling good, I’m always preparing, always having the mentality to score,” Patino said of his hot streak. “I want more and more, hungry for more.”
El Paso attempted to answer back with a shot from outside the box but it was punched away by San Antonio goalkeeper Jordan Farr. That attempt by the Locomotive was their only shot on target in the 95 minutes of action on Saturday night.
San Antonio’s defense was stellar all night long as El Paso pressured late to find the game-tying goal. Farr earned his eighth clean sheet of the season as SAFC had their third-straight shutout, and 10th of the season.
That’s a championship performance tonight. There was a trophy on the line, it’s not easy to come here, they had a long unbeaten streak at home,” Dhillon said. “I think shows that this group is something special. We talk about the mentality all the time and it showed once again tonight.”
UP NEXT:
San Antonio FC is now 15-3-1 (46 points) on the season and will return to the pitch next Saturday when they welcome LA Galaxy II (9-10-3) to Toyota Field at 8 p.m.
