TULSA, OK – Tulsa Athletic managed to bounce back after a three game skid to defeat Heartland Conference Newcomers, St. Louis Club Atletico, 2-1 on Sunday.
St Louis and Tulsa met for the second time in the 2018 season this afternoon to decide who will hold the advantage for second in the Heartland.
In the scorching Tulsa heat, the two sides battled until exhaustion but it would be the home team to claim all three points.
Club Atletico scored in the first minute of the match when Brayan Lopez broke into space and slipped a ball to Pandelis Popgeorgiev who slotted it past Austin Wormell. 0-1 St. Louis.
Tulsa had the majority of possession but could not find the equalizer until midway through the first half. Captain Jake Schmoker sent in a beautiful corner and defender Gustavo Vargas rose up to bury it home. All tied at 1.
Throughout the rest of the match, Tulsa held most of the ball while St. Louis tried to counter quickly. While it looked like Athletic would find the go-ahead goal, St. Louis’ keeper, Nate Himes, stood on his head no less than three times to keep the ball out of the net.
The break came late in the match with 6 minutes left. Substitute Adam Habib picked the ball off a St. Louis center back off a goal kick. Habib took a touch and hit a shot. Himes was up for the challenge and made the initial save, but Habib raced for the rebound and headed it in on the line to give Tulsa the lead.
The win snapped a 3-game winless streak for Tulsa Athletic and secured sole possession of second place.
Athletic host their final regular season home match of the season next Sunday, June 24th at Veterans Park when they take on Demize NPSL at 2pm.
2018 NPSL Season
Heartland Conference
Tulsa 2 : 1 St. Louis
Sunday June 17th
Tulsa, OK – Veterans Park
Scoring
STL: Pandelis Popgeorgiev (Brayan Lopez) 1′
TUL: Gustavo Vargas (Jake Schmoker) 28′
TUL: Adam Habib 84′
Discipline
TUL: Declan Fitzpatrick 55′
TUL: Damieon Thomas 78′
Lineups
Tulsa
Austin Wormell; Jake Schmoker, Ryan Alpers, Gustavo Vargas, Jono Woods, Nick Downs; Declan Fitzpatrick (Adam Habib, 80′), Ricky Chavez (Jordan Schmoker, 46′), Joe Ruiz (Lucca Rodrigues, 83′); Aaron Ugbah (Levi Coleman, 61′), Damieon Thomas (Ben Barkley, 78′)
St. Louis
Nate Himes; Jair Hernandez, Josh Ward, Chase Niece, Will Linder; Jacob Krupp (Dwight Degazon, 74′), Brayan Lopez, Rodrigo Carrasco (PJ Amponsah, 68′), Eric Lopez (Alexandros Chaitidis, 93′); Pandelis Popgeorgiev (Camarri Johnson, 68′), Junior Kazeem (Dominique Clark, 68′)
