The Sacramento Republic FC jumped out to a 2-0 lead after just 19 minutes, carried a 3-0 advantage into halftime and closed out the Roughnecks’ second United Soccer League season with a 4-0 triumph Saturday night in front of 4,158 faithful fans at ONEOK Field.
Tulsa finished the campaign with a final record of 5-21-4.
“All the interviews that we had this year could be the same interview,” said Coach David Irving. “It’s the same story, we give three goals away. You can’t do that. That’s been our Achilles’ heel. It’s been a challenging year for everyone – the organization, the players, me – everyone.”
With the win, Sacramento (14-6-10) moved into first place in the Western Conference standings, at least temporarily, pending the results of Colorado Springs’ later game against Orange County.
The lone bright spot for the Roughnecks on this night was the play of rookie goalkeeper Hunter Harrison, who made his first appearance of the season coming in to replace starter Jake Feener after halftime.
Harrison, who played a year at Oral Roberts University and spent most of the season as the Roughnecks’ third goalkeeper, made three saves on the night, all of them difficult ones, and was named the Roustabouts’ “Man of the Match.”
“It felt nice to finally play in my first game,” Harrison said. “It’s been a year since I played, so it takes hard work, a lot of training, a lot of progress. It also takes a lot of help from your teammates to keep your confidence going when you’re not playing. And when you get your chance, you have to go out there and play, and once I got in, I was able to show something.”
Photo Right of Hunter Harrison by Rich Crimi
Sacramento controlled the ball for much of the first half and went ahead just 10 minutes into the match. James Kiffe fed a pass from the left into the middle, where Mackenzie Pridham volleyed it waist-high from 10 yards out. The shot went down and bounced up and over Feener.
The Republic went up 2-0 in the 19th minute on Cameron Iwasa’s team-leading 12th goal of the season. Iwasa carried into the middle and drilled a shot from 20 yards out that took a deflection off a Tulsa defender leaving Feener with no chance as the ball rolled in off the left goalpost.
Tulsa’s deficit grew to three in the 35th minute after a foul by Kaleem, which earned him a yellow card and gave the Republic a free kick in the middle of the field about, 22 yards out. Daniel Barrera, the USL’s assists leader, took an impressive left-footed shot that curled around the wall of Roughneck defenders, past the diving Feener and just inside the right post.
After halftime, Irving inserted Harrison in place of Feener, and he made his first professional save in the 55th minute, a sliding, point-blank stop on Pridham.
“That was always in our plans,” Irving said of playing Harrison in the finale. “We weren’t going to make the playoffs, and he’s done well. He’s trained with us, he’s worked out every day and he’s young. He was at ORU, and he did very well, no complaints. He enjoyed it too. He was a little nervous, but he got his feet wet, as you might say.”
Harrison came up big again in the 68th minute, making back-to-back stops. Octavio Guzman’s pass from the left side found Michael Da Fonte in the middle, about 10 yards out, for a header that forced Harrison to make a leaping save, deflecting the ball up and off the crossbar. The rebound bounced right out to Iwasa for a point-blank volley, and Harrison reached up for a left hand save while down on the ground as the offside flag went up.
The Republic got the fourth goal just seconds before stoppage time ended, one final, cruel kick to close out the Roughnecks year, as Harry Williams put home a 15-yard shot past the diving Harrison just inside the right goalpost.
Photo Left of Gary Cennerazzo by Brooke Carroll
Somehow that seemed like a fitting end to a disappointing season for Tulsa, one that started out with an encouraging win in the first game but was quickly followed by a 0-5-1 winless skid. Things just spiraled from there, as the Roughnecks lost five straight games at one point, and were 2-10-2 after 14 outings. A promising 3-2-1 stretch followed that, but the Roughnecks couldn’t sustain the momentum, last getting three points in a 2-1 victory over Arizona United SC on July 30.
But as Coach Irving pointed out, while the results didn’t go their way, they always put forth an inspired effort.
“A least I can say this – we never laid down, we always tried, they never quit on me, and regardless of the results, they worked their socks off,” Irving said. “We weren’t quite good enough. But, all credit to them, they could have lied down and rolled over, but they showed up for practice every day.”
