San Antonio, Minnesota Earn First Spring Season Wins on Saturday

May 9, 2015 - North American Soccer League (NASL) News Release


New York - Defending NASL Champion San Antonio Scorpions and defending Spring Season Champion Minnesota United FC each earned their first victory of the North American Soccer League's 2015 Spring Season on Saturday night.

For the Scorpions, Billy Forbes and Bright Dike came off the bench to combine for the game's only goal in San Antonio. Forbes replaced the injured Martin Chávez just before halftime and Dike replaced Omar Cummings minutes before scoring his first goal for the Scorpions. It was the first assist of the season for Forbes, who beat Carolina's offside trap on the left flank before centering to Dike for a tap-in.

Host Minnesota, which finished in first place in the 2014 Spring Season and second in the Fall Season, rode a Pablo Campos goal to defeat the Atlanta Silverbacks before a sellout crowd. The win enabled United to move past the league's two Canadian teams and into a tie for seventh place with Indy Eleven.

With Fort Lauderdale off this week and Tampa Bay playing a 0-0 tie at Ottawa, the only action in Florida was in Jacksonville where the expansion Armada FC won its second straight match, blanking Indy Eleven, to move into a second place by virtue of having a better goal differential than the Rowdies. Both teams have 9 points, but Jacksonville has a game in hand. In Saturday's afternoon game, Ottawa Fury FC and visiting Tampa Bay Rowdies played to a 0-0 tie.

The Week 6 schedule concludes Sunday afternoon when the unbeaten, first-place New York Cosmos host high-scoring FC Edmonton in a Mother's Day matinee.

Ottawa Fury FC 0, Tampa Bay Rowdies 0

Tampa Bay (2-3-1, 9 points) missed an opportunity to pick up some ground on first-place New York (which plays on Sunday). The Rowdies are unbeaten in three games, including two consecutive draws. Ottawa (1-2-3, 5 points) is without a victory in three league matches and five games overall. Each team managed just two shots on goal before 3,461 on a warm afternoon at TD Place.

Jacksonville Armada FC 1, Indy Eleven 0

Indy Eleven (1-3-1, 6 points) failed to make it 10 games without a loss (since last September) falling to Jacksonville (3-0-2, 9 points) on a goal early in the second half by Bochy Hoyos. Hoyos, the son of the Armada coach Guillermo Hoyos, was one of six Argentines to start for the home team before 8,318 at Community First Park. With the victory, Jacksonville moved into a tie (on points) for second place with Tampa Bay after winning its second straight game. It was the second goal of the season for Hoyos. Indy, which had last week off, had Keith Cardona, a former US youth international, making his first start in goal.

Minnesota United FC 1, Atlanta Silverbacks 0

Host Minnesota (1-3-1, 6 points) had its second sellout (9,058) of the season at the National Sports Center in Blaine to go with its first victory as Pablo Campos scored off a pass from Miguel Ibarra two minutes before halftime. Atlanta (1-4-1, 7 points) entered the match as one of three undefeated teams (the Cosmos are the other) so far this season, but could not muster much of an attack and failed to test Loons' goalkeeper Sammy Ndjock.

San Antonio Scorpions 1, Carolina RailHawks 0

Bright Dike came off the bench in the second half and scored his first goal for host San Antonio as the defending NASL champion Scorpions (1-1-3, 4 points) got off the schneid with their first victory of the season, before 7,252 at Toyota Field. San Antonio Coach Alan Marcina opted to start the game with Forbes, Dike and Zourab Tsiskaridze on the bench. The Scorpions received a spark with the return of from injury of defender Adrian Cann and the professional debut of Tyler Gibson. Carolina (1-4-1, 4 points) has three draws and two losses to show from its last five games. The RailHawks made the trip to Texas without the leading scorer Nacho Novo.



North American Soccer League Stories from May 9, 2015


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