SAN ANTONIO — For the second consecutive weekend, San Antonio FC gave up a late second-half goal, ending their match with El Paso Locomotive FC in a 2-2 draw at Toyota Field on Saturday night.
The match saw SAFC end their three-match homestand with a 1-0-2 record and pushes their home unbeaten streak to 26 matches, which dates back to last season.
“We continue our 26-game undefeated streak at home -that’s not an easy thing to do- and you’re going against another quality team, El Paso, a very good team,” SAFC Head Coach Alen Marcina said. “We’re a little bit unlucky I felt. Scored three goals, I know only one counted. Our guys did very, very well. Couple moments, couple decisions need improving and we’ll learn from this and move on.”
San Antonio struck early on in the match with Mitchell Taintor heading home a corner kick from Jorge Hernandez in the fourth minute. The goal marked the second-straight match with a score for Taintor.
“It’s stuff that we really focus on during the week, it’s stuff that we take pride in – set pieces,” Taintor said of the team’s early scoring run. “And we’ve been able to capitalize on quite of a few of them recently so it’s a good run of form.”
El Paso answered quickly just seven minutes later to level the match. With SAFC goalkeeper Jordan Farr out of the net, Locomotive took advantage when Aaron Gomez chipped the ball into the empty net, leveling the match at one goal apiece going into the second half.
Samuel Adeniran broke the deadlock in the 60th minute off the feed from Justin Dhillon for his third goal of the season and 15th overall with SAFC dating back to last season.
“Justin’s just special when it comes to giving assists,” Adeniran said. “He’s been leading our team for assists for like three years … in terms of just like, having eyes in the back of his head – that’s literally what he has.”
El Paso applied pressure after the Adeniran goal and it paid off in the 78th minute when Luis Solignac’s one-timer beat Farr and gave the visitors the goal they needed to escape Toyota Field with a point.
SAFC now hits the road for the next three matches, beginning with a midweek battle against San Diego Loyal SC, a match that is likely circled on the calendar for San Antonio for more than one reason.
“We need to be really strong mentally going into this game it’s going to be really tough physically, mentally, emotionally,” Taintor said. “So we’re gonna see what we’re made of and it’s gonna be really good game.”
UP NEXT:
San Antonio FC is now 6-2-6 (24 points) on the season and will return to the pitch on Wednesday to face Loyal SC (6-4-4) at 9 p.m. on ESPN +.
