Monterey Bay and El Paso Locomotive FC Play to Scoreless Draw

August 25, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Monterey Bay FC News Release

SEASIDE, California – Monterey Bay F.C. (7-11-7, 28 points) earned a point in a scoreless draw with El Paso Locomotive FC (5-15-5, 20 points) at Cardinale Stadium on Back to School Night, presented by Montage Health. Diego Gutierrez made his Monterey Bay debut in the match, and Antony Siaha recorded the 200th save of his USL Championship career alongside the sixth clean sheet of the season and the 19th of his career.

El Paso began the match with a high press that led to a few shaky moments to start the match for Monterey, but the Union withstood the pressure and responded with an attack of their own in the 8th minute, but Tristan Trager’s shot missed just wide of the left post. Locomotive FC intercepted a pass inside the Union box in the 26th minute, but the shot by Tumi Moshobane was saved by Siaha with a diving effort to his right. Chaos ensued in the 30th minute with the Crisp-and-Kelp applying intense pressure. Morey Doner whipped a low ball into the box that took a deflection before falling to the feet of Adrian Rebollar for a shot, but it was saved by the goalkeeper. Less than a minute later, Doner looped another ball into the box towards Alex Dixon, but his bicycle kick attempt was blocked. The ball once again fell to Monterey Bay – this time Trager – but his headed attempt was saved again by El Paso’s Jahmali Waite.

The Union came out of the locker room aggressive to start the second half. In the 47th minute, Mobi Fehr wrangled the ball away from two defenders to find Gutiérrez wide open on the right side of the 18-yard box. Gutiérrez fired off his first shot in Crisp and Kelp, but it missed just over the top of the crossbar. El Paso fired off a shot of their own from distance in the 67th minute, but Siaha stopped the shot from going into the top-right corner with a leaping punch. In the 77th minute, Rebollar placed a beautiful long ball over the top to Trager, who then looked to round the goalkeeper on his second touch, but he ran out of room near the endline and could not get his shot on frame. Five minutes later, Monterey Bay pushed ahead again and found another shot on goal for Rebollar, but it was saved. In the third minute of stoppage time, El Paso’s Noah Dollenmayer was shown yellow for the second time in the match for a tackle just outside the box and was dismissed from the match, leaving El Paso with 10 men for the final few minutes. In the…