North Texas SC gets back on track against Sporting KC II with a dominant 4-1 win and a much-needed 3 points at Children’s Mercy Victory Field. With tonight’s win, Los Toritos climb to 6th in the Western Conference and a record of 2-2-1. The loan NTSC draw is a shootout loss.
Lineups and Tactics
After last week’s tough loss against Houston, North Texas SC returned to action in a new 5-2-3 formation, which seemed to be very fluid throughout the game. In goal, Eryk Dymora earned his 4th start of the season, with a backline trio that consisted of Alvaro Augusto, Slade Starnes, and Enzo Newman.
Joshua Torquato returned to the starting XI after having missed last week’s matchup. Opposite him, Ricky Louis made his second start for NTSC. Most notably absent from the starting lineup was Jonah Biggar, who had started every game for North Texas so far this season.
SKCII sported (you knew that was coming) a 4-3-3 formation, which also appeared to be fluid at times during the game, often rotating to a 4-4-2 depending on who made what runs and when. In goal, Jacob Molinaro earned his 6th straight start on the season.
Forward Kashan Hines and midfielder Gael Quintero both made their 2nd starts of the season, joining captain Pierre Lurot, who anchored the defense. Lurot, being the only SKCII field player who has played every minute thus far into the season.
The Game
In what would be a high-scoring game, Natty James kicked off the scoring for the road team. In the 34th minute, Edo Nys played Louis through up the right sideline. Louis then crossed a ball into the box, finding James all alone. James took a touch off the pass and buried it for his first goal of the season, and an early 1-0 lead for NTSC.
Los Toritos doubled their lead only moments later. In the 40th minute, Torquato played another through ball to Diego Garcia, who found himself all alone up the left side of the field. Garcia drew the keeper off his line, played it back to Nys, who tapped it home to make it 2-0.
To cap off their 9-minute goal-scoring run, James found his brace in the 43rd minute. After working the ball up the field, Nys played James in the box. James, with a bit of fancy footwork, pulled it back onto his left foot and bounced another shot past the keeper to extend the lead, 3-0.
“I feel very good, happy, and proud of myself,” James said. “It’s been a difficult spell for me because I wasn’t able to score in the first couple of games. Even though I wasn’t scoring, I felt the motivation and confidence from my teammates and coaches during that time. To come here and get my first two goals is special. We just want to keep this momentum going for the rest of the season.”
Although it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the second half. In the 82nd minute, Dymora misplayed a ball out of his box. Ty Haas, who had recently subbed on, beat his defender to the ball and tapped it home to cut the NTSC lead down to 3-1.
Thankfully though, North Texas would rebound. In the 90th minute, after a corner was cleared away by a SKCII defender, Timmy Ospina found himself with the ball just outside the box and sent a rope into the lower left corner of the goal for the final score of the game, in a 4-1 routing of the home team.
“The most important part of tonight was forgetting about the last two games; those are in the past,” Head Coach John Gall said. “We’ve changed some things we’ve looked at over the last couple of weeks, and coming back (into form) tonight against a good team and getting this result is a big boost for us. It puts us back to where our standards and expectations are and helps us grow to move forward.”
After what had been a shaky start to his season, my Man of the Match is the man they call – Natty James. With two goals in the game and having completed 86% of his passes tonight, James was a center point for the offense against Sporting KC II.
Up next, North Texas SC returns home to Choctaw Stadium to face off (once again) against Sporting KC II on Friday, April 10th at 7:30 pm CT. SKCII are currently 0-1-5 on the season, with 1 shoot-out win.
