Sports stats

USL FC Tulsa

Roughnecks Suffer First Defeat in 2-1 Loss to Swope Park

April 2, 2016 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
FC Tulsa News Release


Tulsa Roughnecks FC hosted the Swope Park Rangers Saturday night at ONEOK Field in the first of four meetings this season between the two clubs, and it was the Rangers who claimed the victory, getting a goal in each half to post a 2-1 victory.

The defeat keeps Tulsa on three points with a 1-1-0 record after two matches this season. The Rangers, who are the USL side for Sporting KC of MLS, kept their record perfect at 2-0-0 with the win.

Roughnecks Head Coach David Irving made three changes to the side that started last week's 2-1 season-opening victory, with Mason Grimes, Henri and Jasson Ramos Carpio coming into the side.

Defender Gary Cennerazzo delivers a pass during the first half of Saturday's 2-1 loss to Swope Park. (Photo by Naeem Thomas)

Tulsa played most of the match down a goal after Dane Kelly struck early for the Rangers. In the 11th minute, the 25-year-old Jamaican, who is the USL's all-time leading scorer, took a feed from Kevin Oliveira at the edge of the penalty box and struck a left-footed rocket past Tulsa goalkeeper Alex Mangels to make it 1-0.

The Roughnecks best chance of the first half came in the 42nd minute when they had three quick shots in succession, but the threat ended when Raymond Lee's effort was smothered by Rangers' goalkeeper Jon Kempin.

The match seemed destined for a 1-0 final before coming to life in the final minutes of the second half. Irving used all five of his substitutions in attempt to find the equalizer, with Taylor Morgan causing the most issues for the Rangers' defense.

But, it was Swope Park who struck, getting its second goal two minutes into five minutes of added time. On a throw in, Daniel Salloi found Nansel Selbol unmarked at the 18-yard line. Selbol took one touch and beat a surprised Mangels to seemingly seal the outcome.

However, seconds later, the Roughnecks finally found the net. Sammy Ochoa dropped a chipped pass to an onrushing Morgan who beat Kempin to make it 2-1.

Off the kickoff, TRFC took possession and promptly forced a corner kick. The cross skipped off a pair of heads before falling to defender Gary Cennerazzo. His shot from outside the box was blocked by the defense as referee Andrew Musashe blew the final whistle, giving the Roughnecks their first loss of the season.

Irving was disappointed with the result and the effort of his squad.

"You cannot get beat to balls and then have mistakes to give away goals," he said. "It's a disappointment. You've got to win your home games and can't leave points out there. It's a long season but we've got to do better than that."

"There are no easy games," he added. "Taylor got a good goal, but it was just a little too late. We're disappointed but we've got to put it behind us and get ourselves ready for next week."

The Roughnecks were without the services of Anthony Peters and Cristian Mata due to injuries. Mata was on the substitute's bench, but he was withheld for the second straight week as he recovers from a muscle strain.

A paid crowd of 4,103 watched the match in downtown Tulsa.

Check out the FC Tulsa Statistics



United Soccer League Championship Stories from April 2, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central