North Texas SC finds its groove as Sam Sarver and Tarik Scott combine for three goals to give Los Toritos the win at home against Minnesota United 2.
For their home game tonight against the Loons, North Texas SC sported a 4-2-3-1 with JT Harms getting his sixth start in goal. Alongside him in the starting XI, Gavin Gall and Malachi Molina returned as the team’s LB and RB, respectively.
Also starting for North Texas tonight were Daniel Baran, Caleb Swann, and Alejandro Urzua, who all came off the bench in last week’s matchup against Vancouver. The team’s newest signing, Jackson DuBois, made his MLS Next Pro debut in the second half after subbing on for Molina.
The Little Loons returned to Choctaw Stadium with a slightly different lineup than their matchup back in Minnesota. The away team held a 4-3-3 formation, and Kayne Rizvanovich got his sixth start in goal on the season.
Alongside him in the starting lineup were Luke Hille and Loïc Mesanvi, the team’s leading goal scorers. Most notably absent from the lineup tonight was midfield Aidan Martinez, who’s been responsible for two goals this season.
North Texas started strong as Scott forced a turnover in the opposing half of the field in the 2nd minute. He played it out wide to Sarver, who laid it back off to Scott in the box. Scott, with time and space, shot and scored to put the home team up, 1-0.
The home team doubled their lead in the 46th minute, just after the second half had started. Baran played a ball into the box towards Sarver, who flicked it up and over Rizvanovich to extend the lead, 2-0. Sarver is now second in MLS Next Pro with 10 goals on the season.
Scott added to his score total only minutes later in the 54th minute, as once again, Sarver found Scott in the box, who slid it home to make it 3-0, NTSC. This was Scott’s fifth goal of the season and second game with a brace.
After going down to 10 men in the 73rd minute, Minnesota United 2 were able to pull one back in their favor. In the 86th minute, Muba Nour took a shot that somehow trickled past Harms after a diving save attempt and rolled into the back of the net. 3-1, NTSC.
Minnesota would pick up its second red card of the game in the 94th minute as Britton Fischer crashed into Jaidyn Contreras and prevented a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Fortunately for North Texas (and to some degree, Minnesota United 2), the final whistle blew with the score 3-1 in favor of the home team. Los Toritos picked up their 7th win on the season and secured another three points at home.
“Football is about scoring goals, and at the end of the night, we scored three great goals through our strikers. We talked for the last several days about putting the last game behind us and moving forward. We definitely did that tonight,” said Head Coach John Gall about his team’s performance after the game.
With his stellar showing on the scoresheet, our Man of the Match was Tarik Scott. The striker bagged his second brace of the season and now has five goals to his name. He seemed to always be in the right place, at the right time tonight, and that’s ultimately what you’re hoping to see from a player of his caliber.
Scott had this to say about his performance tonight, “As a forward, it sucks not being able to help the team. You are supposed to be doing your one job as a forward, and I felt like I was not doing my job at all. I thank God he heard me and pulled through for me tonight as he knew how badly I wanted to get on the scoresheet.”
Up next, North Texas SC travels to SaberCats Stadium to take on Houston Dynamo 2 on Sunday, July 13th at 7:00 pm CT. The Dynamo Dos are currently 5-6-4 on the season.