EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC’s fifth season in the USL Championship came to an end in Saturday’s Western Conference Quarterfinal at Orange County SC, with Los Locos falling 1-0 in a tightly contested match.
After missing out on the playoffs last year, El Paso knew its return to the postseason would be a tough one, especially against a side like Orange County. The OCSC offense would come out firing to start the match, but El Paso’s relentless defensive acts – including a critical open-goal clearance from Erik McCue in the fifth minute – kept things level for most of the first half. However, Milan Ikoski capitalized on a free kick just before the halftime break to give Orange County the lead.
El Paso pushed for an equalizer in the second half, with goalkeeper Benny Diaz making three big saves to keep the scoreline tight, but Locomotive were unable to level out the score and saw its season get cut short.
This was the fourth time in its five years of existence that El Paso managed to clinch a postseason berth and with the 2023 season now at an end, Locomotive shift focus to the 2024 season.
FORECAST: 66ºF, clear skies
ATTENDANCE: N/A
SCORING SUMMARY
- OC – Milan Iloski 45+1′
LINEUPS
ELP – (5-3-2) Benny Diaz, Marc Navarro, Erik McCue, Noah Dollenmayer, Petar Petrovic (Javier Garcia), Miles Lyons (Nick Hinds), Louis Herrera (Denys Kostyshyn), Liam Rose, Eric Calvillo – C, Aaron Gomez (Chris Garcia), Emmanuel Sonupe (Petur Knudsen)
Subs Not Used: Yuma, Ricardo Zacarias
OC – (4-1-4-1) Colin Shutler, Ryan Doghman, Dillon Powers, Markus Nakkim, Owen Lambe (Brent Richards), Seth Casiple, Milan Iloski, Kyle Scott, Brian Iloski (Andrew Fox), Bryce Jamison (Kevin Lankford), Thomas Amang
Subs Not Used: Alex Villanueva, Kevin Lankford, Nico Ruiz, Ashton Miles, Eric Lopez
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
- ELP – Noah Dollenmayer (Yellow) 29′, Emmanuel Sonupe (Yellow) 58′, Liam Rose (Yellow) 75′, Petar Petrovic (Yellow) 86′, Benny Diaz (Red) 90+3′, Eric Calvillo (Yellow) 90+7′
- OC – Kyle Scott (Yellow) 88′
MATCH STATS: ELP | OC
GOALS: 0|1
ASSISTS: 0|0
POSS. %: 45|55
SHOTS: 4|14
SHOTS ON GOAL: 0|6
SAVES: 0|4
FOULS: 25|23
OFFSIDES: 1|2
CORNERS: 2|7