St. Louis City 2 had North Texas SC’s number once again, as they shut out Los Toritos and ended the Texas team’s four-game winning streak. The game was delayed for an hour by weather in the area and finally kicked off in the rain at 8:03 pm CT.
For the third consecutive week, Nico Montoya was called upon to start in goal for North Texas. Landon Hickam made his return to the starting lineup as a center back in the 4-3-3k. Prior to tonight’s game, the midfielder had started 4 of the 6 games he’s played in this season, and had one goal to his name.
Also making their return to the starting lineup were Tarik Scott, Daniel Baran, and Caleb Swann. Most notably missing from the starting XI was striker Faisu Sangare, who was shown a red card in last week’s game.
St. Louis City 2 held a 4-2-3-1 formation in this week’s rematch, with Christian Olivares getting his fifth start of the season. Defender Jayden Reid made his second start at left back, after having spent the majority of his 2025 season with the first team.
Notably absent for St. Louis City tonight was forward Mykhi Joyner, who currently leads the team with 8 goals. Also not present in the starting XI was Tyson Pearce, who has been a driving force in creating shot opportunities so far this season, with 11 key passes through the midfield.
St. Louis opened up the scoring in the 15th minute, after Wan Kuzain played a cross to the back post to find Emil Jääskeläinen. The striker headed the ball past the North Texas keeper to make it 1-0, St. Louis City 2.
The home team would double their lead twenty-five minutes later. In the 40th minute, Reed played another cross to Matteo Kidd, who volleyed the ball past Montoya to make it 2-0, St. Louis.
Unfortunately, much like the weather tonight, when it rains… it pours. North Texas would go the entire second half without finding the back of the net, and their recent run of success finally ends in St. Louis.
“Tonight was disappointing,” said Coach John Gall after the game. “We let ourselves down. We’ve been on a hot streak, especially on the road, and we’ve performed at a high level. We just couldn’t do that tonight.”
After tonight’s performance, it’s hard to identify a player who stood out from the rest. Sam Sarver didn’t seem to live up to his usual standards, as the home team did their best to minimize his impact.
If we had to pick one person as our “Man of the Match”, it would have to be Anthony Ramirez. With Sarver being shut down by St. Louis, the central midfielder did his best to step up in his place. With twenty-two passes made and one opportunity created from a cross early on, Ramirez did all he could for North Texas tonight.
“Tonight did not go our way. We are a good team with good players,” said North Texas midfielder Aaron Essel. “The scoreline did not reflect the type of team we are. We are disappointed with tonight, but we will turn the page and work hard ahead of our next match against Austin.”
Up next, North Texas SC returns home to Choctaw Stadium to Providence Park to take on Austin FC II on Saturday, June 14th at 7:45 pm CT. Verde Dos is currently 2-3-5 on the season.
The average starting age for St Louis was 23.6, for North Texas it was 18.6. St Louis did not start a player younger than 20. North Texas had 8 of 11 younger than 20. It was quite literally men vs. boys.
St Louis has been consistently the oldest or close to the oldest team in MLSNextpro since its creation. I’m not sure what the development philosophy is with them but they retain more players year over year than North Texas does. It’s really no surprise they are consistently near the top of the league given the age of the players they play.
I thought it was terrific that so many young signings and Academy kids started. So yes, it’s not a surprise this was the result.