North Texas SC hands Tacoma their first home loss of the season – a thrilling 3-2 finish – extending the NTSC win streak to four. The 12-straight-points sees the club climb to 2nd in the West.
Following an impressive win last week, Nico Montoya got the start again in goal for North Texas SC. Alongside him, Jaidyn Contreras made his return to the starting Lineup. Contreras, who hasn’t started since their win against Vancouver back in March, played this game opposite Captain Sam Sarver, on the left wing.
Once again, North Texas held a 4-2-3-1 formation with Faisu Sangare up top and Anthony Ramirez in the central midfield. The rest of the lineup remained relatively unchanged from the previous few weeks.
The Tacoma Defiance also sported a 4-2-3-1 formation, with goalkeeper Jacob Castro getting his fifth start this season. Twenty-two-year-old Danny Leyva got his first start after having spent most of the season up with the first team in Seattle.
Up front, Osaze De Rosario started at striker, with Yu Tsukanome playing behind him at the CAM. Both players currently lead the Defiance with 8 goals each, making up nearly 73% of their scoring production so far this season.
In the 19th minute, North Texas broke the seal for both teams. Ramirez played a beautiful through ball to Sarver, who was able to track away from his defender and fired a shot past the Defiance keeper to make it 1-0, NTSC.
Tacoma wouldn’t wait long to respond, though. In the 25th minute, Sebastian Gomez played a ball into the middle of the field, which found its way to Tsukanome, who made a quick hop step to his right, shot, and scored, to even the game, 1-1.
“I thought in the first half we struggled a bit. Tacoma is a good team with a good attacking sense. At half time, as a staff, we talked about what we needed to do with the ball, without the ball, marking their players, and more,” said Coach John Gall.
“I’m super proud of this group, always listening and understanding what we’re instructing them to do. [Tacoma] is a tough team, and it’s difficult to settle in and adjust to a team like them. The important thing for us was making the changes at half to help us control the game, and it helped us get the three points.”
Despite a quiet start to the second half, North Texas reignited the intensity in the 74th minute. Sangare received a pass from Joshua Torquato, made a few dribbles through the midfield, and blasted a ball past the keeper to give the away team the lead once again, 2-1.
In the 77th minute, North Texas doubled its lead after Sarver drew a foul inside the box. The Captain once again did what he’s done all season, and converted the penalty kick to make it 3-1, NTSC.
This game wasn’t over yet, though. In the 79th minute, after a long throw-in from Travian Sousa, Kaito Yamada volleyed a shot from the top of the box and cut North Texas’s lead down to 1.
Less than 10 minutes later, more drama unfolded for North Texas. In the 88th minute, after Leo Burnley picked up the ball in the midfield, Sangare made the unfortunate decision to go cleat-first into the Tacoma player. He was sent off with a straight red, and NTSC was down to 10 men for the remainder of the game.
Thankfully, though, North Texas was able to weather the storm and steered the ship safely into harbor.
“We were the best side,” said Captain Sam Sarver after the game. “We deserved the win in the end. All of the guys were working relentlessly all game long, and even teammates off the bench put in a shift. We all worked hard and won the ball back.”
“I am super proud of this team,” Sarver continued. “In the end, it was a massive win, although we got a red card at the end, we showed what kind of team we can be. It shows the mentality of all the players on the team.”
The final whistle blew, and North Texas walked away with a 3-2 victory. This was Tacoma’s first loss at Starfire Sports Complex in 2025.
With his third brace of the season tonight, there could only be one correct answer for Man of the Match. Sam Sarver. Once again, the catalyst for the North Texas offense managed to score twice and almost added at least one more during the course of this game. The former Hoosier continues to dominate the MLS Next Pro.
Up next, North Texas SC travels to Energizer Park to take on St. Louis CITY2 on Wednesday, June 4th at 7:00 pm CT. St. Louis is currently 6-4-1 on the season.
What happened to Tarik? What injury did he have? I saw he got subbed off in the Houston 2 game but he seemed to walk off the field.