After some late-game heroics, North Texas SC walked out of Providence Park with a shootout win against Timbers2 on Sunday. In their last three games, NTSC has managed to secure 7 points out of a possible 9 and currently sits 4th in the Western Conference with 11 points.
Lineups and Tactics
For the second straight game, Los Toritos held a 3-4-3 formation with Eryk Dymora getting his 6th start of the season. The starting lineup featured zero changes from their previous match-up against Sporting KC II.
In the midfield, Marlon Luccin earned his second start of the season, paired with Timmy Ospina. Most notably absent from the starting XI was forward Nick Simmonds, who had made his debut with FC Dallas the day prior.
Opposite North Texas, the Timbers2 held a 4-2-3-1 formation with Hunter Sulte earning his 3rd start of the season in goal. On the backline, Charles Ondo and Sawyer Jura started out wide as the team’s left back and right back, respectively.
The home side saw a number of new faces in the startling XI, Gage Guerra, Lucas Fernandez-Kim, and Colin Griffith all made their 2026 debut for Timbers2. Most notably absent from the starting lineup was Daniel Núñez, who has the 3rd most shots on target for the team.
The Game
Thanks to some help from Portland, North Texas managed to gain the first lead of the game. In the 26th minute, Edu Nys played Diego Garcia through up the left side of the pitch. Garcia then played a low cross to Slade Starnes in the box, but the pass deflected off Nicklas Lund and into the net for an own goal.
Minutes later, Dymora came up big with a huge save to keep the score at 1-0 for North Texas. In the 32nd minute, the ref awarded a PK after Griffith deflected a cross off of Joshua Torquato’s arm. Guerra stepped up to take the shot, but was denied by Dymora for his second big save of the game.
“I was really happy with the first half,” Head Coach John Gall said. “The goal came from strong attacking energy and mentality. We felt, if we could win a few balls in good areas, we could create chances, and I thought we had enough opportunities to maybe get a second goal.”
In the 53rd minute, the Timbers2 finally broke through after a lackluster start to the second half from NTSC. Sawyer Jura played a through ball to Guerra, who was able to slip through the defense and poke the ball past Dymora to level the game at 1-1.
Less than 10 minutes later, Portland got its first lead of the game. In the 62nd minute, Griffith was taken down in the box by Jonah Biggar. Noah Santos stepped up to take the PK and buried Portland’s second goal of the game. NTSC trailed, 2-1, with 28 minutes remaining in the game.
Despite losing all momentum, North Texas refused to quit. In the 82nd minute, Nys tied it at 2-2 after Natty James had his pass deflected. Nys picked up the ball in the midfield, took a couple of dribbles, and with the outside of his foot, curled in a magnificent shot to level the game.
After 90 minutes of soccer, the game headed to a shootout. Dymora was able to come up with a huge save once again and help North Texas SC secure two points, this time from Timbers2.
Penalty Kick Results:
NTX – 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢
POR – 🔴🟢🟢🟢X
The only real downside to this game was the poor performance from the backline. It was quite uncharacteristic of them. However, Eryk Dymora managed to pick up the slack and showed up big time for North Texas SC.
Our Man of the Match, finished the game with 5 saves, not including the save he made in the penalty shoot-out. Most of the saves weren’t gimme’s either. He was called upon in the biggest moments and is, in large part, the reason for the 2 points today.
“Eryk was fantastic today,” coach Gall said. “He was good with his feet, made strong decisions, and played long when he needed to. That’s something we work on often in training. Then, when a goalkeeper saves a penalty during the match, it’s a huge momentum swing and a game-changing moment.”
Up next, North Texas SC travels to National Sports Center Stadium to take on MNUFC2 on Sunday, April 26th at 3:00 pm CT. Minnesota is currently 2-3-0 on the season.