Tulsa Athletic and Dallas City FC are old rivals. The sides have met seven times prior to Saturday’s first UPSL encounter, and though Tulsa hold a 4-2-1 advantage over their Red River rivals, the matches have always been close and heated affairs.
TA 20 started the match very well as Dallas City were dispossessed from the kickoff and a Whitney Gonslaves effort off of the post was ruled to be just offside. It signaled the intent that Tulsa were going to high pressure DCFC both with and without possession. The tactic worked well as Athletic proved to be more potent in the first 45 minutes. Though Tulsa held a significant lead in corners, possession, shots and chances, the two sides entered the half still knotted at zero.
“I thought we let ourselves down in the final attacking third today.” said Athletic coach Levi Coleman
“We have to be more clinical in front of goal.”
Young Athletic heeded the advice of their coach and in the 59th minute Johan Juarez picked out Keith Peterson in front of goal for his second tally of the season. TA 20 doubled their lead in the 66th minute as the goalscorer Peterson turned provider, setting up Ruben Torres for his first goal of the season. Torres calmly lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper as Tulsa appeared to be cruising towards another 3 points. Dallas City had other ideas and immediately answered back in the 69th minute when an inch perfect cross was coolly slotted home by DCFC’s Josh Malone to break up Nolan Cosgrove’s attempt at the first clean sheet of the season. The final 20 minutes were mostly TA 20 knocking on the door and in the 90th minute they were finally let in. Fernando Saldana found the wide run of Ruben Torres whose powerful finish iced the game and guaranteed that the three points were coming back to Tulsa.
Final score 3-1
Tulsa heads back out on the road Saturday at 4:00 in Tyler, TX at Bristo field. The two teams earlier meeting was a contender for game of the season as Tulsa battled back from a 3-1 deficit in the 75th minute to run out 4-3 winners in dramatic fashion.
Fun Fact: The game winning hat trick goalscorer of the very first contest between these two sides on June 27th 2014 was…you guessed it…20’s manager Levi Coleman.
Goalscorers
Peterson(2) (Juarez) 59th minute
Torres(1) (Peterson) 66th minute
Malone (Dobgima) 69th minute
Torres(2) (Saldana) 90th minute
