A First-Half Brace from JJ Williams Cements Another Home Win for FC Tulsa
TULSA – On a blistering summer evening in Tulsa with temperatures touching triple digits, the weather was not the only thing heating up at ONEOK Field. The FC Tulsa offense roared to life, headlined by a JJ Williams first-half brace, and ended its scoreless streak while securing all three points in Donovan Ricketts’ first home match after being named the club’s interim head coach nine days ago.
It took the Tulsa attack all of 17 minutes to open the scoring on Saturday night, courtesy of forward JJ Williams’ sixth tally of the season. Bradley Bourgeois earned his first assist of the season on the very night the Tulsa captain was presented with a “Bourgeois 10k” jersey prior to the match, celebrating Bourgeois reaching 10,000 career USL Championship minute mark on June 2. A lurking Williams connected with Bourgeois’ delivery from the left corner, slotting it home to give Tulsa the early 1-0 lead.
However, Williams was not content with just one goal. The 6’3” forward connected on a free kick sent in courtesy of the King of FC Tulsa Assists, Rodrigo da Costa, heading the ball past the Charleston Battery keeper to secure his second brace of the 2022 season just 17 minutes after his first goal of the match. Williams and da Costa came into Saturday night tied for the club lead with five goals each, a stat that Williams now holds sole possession of with seven.
Charleston was able to get one back right in the first minute of first-half stoppage as Mauro Cichero found a pocket of space on the left side of the Tulsa defense, cementing the halftime score at 2-1 in favor of the good guys. Cichero’s goal marked only the fourth time all season that FC Tulsa goalkeeper Austin Wormell conceded a goal.
That was all the offense the Battery would muster as FC Tulsa dropped numbers back in the second half to protect its lead. Despite controlling possession in the final third for what felt like an eternity to FC Tulsa fans near the end of the match, Charleston was held to only four total shots in the second half, none of which were on target.
FC Tulsa moves to 5W-2L-2D at ONEOK Field in 2022 while Donovan Ricketts is now perfect in front of the home crowd as the interim head coach.
Here are three takeaways from tonight’s match.
1) SCORELESS STREAK SNAPPED
FC Tulsa came into Saturday night’s match scoreless in its last 277 minutes. While the streak did continue for another 17 minutes, JJ Williams was able to snap what finished as the fifth-longest streak in club history. The win was also the club’s first since May 7, a 3-1 win over Detroit City 49 days ago.
2) BRACE YOURSELVES – JJ DID IT AGAIN
Forward JJ Williams netted two goals in the span of 34 minutes on Saturday, his second brace in his first season with FC Tulsa. In total, Williams has bagged a brace three times in his career, the first coming back in 2019 as a member of Birmingham Legion FC. Williams now leads FC Tulsa in both goals (7) and shots (37) in 2022.
3) STILL WINNIN’ AT ONEOK
Another match at ONEOK Field typically means another notch in the win column for FC Tulsa, and this one was no different. Tulsa has taken points away from seven of its nine matches at home with a 5W-2L-2D record and a goal differential of +4 in 2022.
UP NEXT
FC Tulsa hits the road once again to take on Western Conference foe San Antonio FC for a rare Tuesday night match. Tulsa traveled to take on San Antonio at Toyota Field once in 2021 and the two sides split the points one apiece. The match will ONLY be streamed on ESPN2 and is slated to kick off at 8 p.m. CT.
