Mitchell Taintor Scores in Second-Straight Match
SAN ANTONIO (June 10, 2023) – San Antonio FC drew El Paso Locomotive FC 2-2 tonight to move to 6-2-6 with 24 points on the season. The draw keeps SAFC third in the USL Championship Western Conference, and extends the team’s unbeaten streak at Toyota Field to 23-straight regular season matches.
For the second-straight match, SAFC started fast with a goal in the first four minutes. Mitchell Taintor headed home a corner from Jorge Hernandez, his second-straight match with a score. El Paso answered quickly, scoring in the 11th minute to level the match.
In the 60th minute, SAFC retook the lead after Justin Dhillon found Samuel Adeniran to make it 2-1. The goal was Adeniran’s third of the season and 15 of his SAFC career.
El Paso again answered, scoring in the 78th minute to even it at two goals apiece.
The draw continues SAFC’s streak of 26-straight home matches without a loss, as well as a 54-match run without a loss when scoring first.
Next Up
San Antonio FC is back in action in just four days, traveling to take on San Diego Loyal SC on Wednesday, June 14. The match kicks off at 9:00 p.m. CT, and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Postgame Notes:
- San Antonio FC moves to 6-2-6 on the season with 24 points.
- The draw extends San Antonio’s home unbeaten streak to 26 matches. Additionally, SAFC’s unbeaten streak when scoring first moves to 54 matches.
- SAFC defender Carter Manley made his first start of the season, after missing the team’s first 13 matches of the USL Championship schedule.
- San Antonio scored within the first four minute of the match for the second-straight match, marking the seventh time this season that SAFC has found the back of the net within the first quarter hour of a match.
- Mitchell Taintor’s goal comes as his second of the season, after scoring his first in last week’s draw against San Diego.
- Jorge Hernandez’s assist on Taintor’s goal was his first with SAFC.
- Samuel Adeniran’s go-ahead goal in the 60th minute was his third of the season and 15th with SAFC.
- Justin Dhillon’s assist on Adeniran’s goal was his second of the season, giving him 14 with SAFC to take sole-possession of the club record. Dhillon was previously tied with Cristian Parano with 13.
Head Coach Alen Marcina
(On the draw…)
“I mean, we continue our 26-game undefeated streak at home -that’s not an easy thing to do- and you’re going against another quality team, El Paso, a very good team. We’re a little bit unlucky I felt. Scored three goals, I know only one counted. We’ll review the tape obviously, in the game obviously, hard to see. But our guys did very, very well. Couple moments, couple decisions need improving and we’ll learn from this and move on.”
(On facing SD Loyal again on Wednesday …)
“Now our focus is on recovery. Get the guys back in. Make sure physically they’re ready, make sure mentally they’re ready and we will prepare like we do every other game. It’s just a little bit shorter week, but we have the benefit of playing them recently. So we are going to be well prepared and we’re gonna go and put our best foot forward and hopefully, earn three points in San Diego.”
Defender Mitchell Taintor
(On getting the first goal of the night…)
“Yeah, it was a great ball hit by Jorge initially and you know it was a good header to jump over the guy and put it back across. Happy to help the team.”
(On scoring early in the last two matches…)
“Yeah I mean I don’t think it’s luck, it’s stuff that we really focus on during the week, it’s stuff that we take pride in – set pieces. And we’ve been able to capitalize on quite of a few of them recently so it’s a good run of form and hopefully we can keep that going into next week.”
(On how the team views draws…)
“It’s obviously not great dropping leads, but also I think the standard of the club was set. We expect to win and we work really hard during the week to win these games, and we put ourselves in good positions to win these games, so yeah when you do have the lead and then you end up dropping points it sucks that much more.”
(On remaining focused going into the SD Loyal match…)
“I mean, soccer is an emotional game, you see tempers flare, and you see it all over the world. We need to be really strong mentally going into this game it’s going to be really tough physically, mentally, emotionally. So we’re gonna see what we’re made of and it’s gonna be really good game. Two really good teams and I think one point separates us, so it’s a big match, but I have no doubt that we’ll be ready mentally, physically and you know, ready to go.”
Forward Samuel Adeniran
(On his goal, and the assist by Justin Dhillon…)
“I think the centerback or the six on their team made a mistake and let the ball get past them, and then Justin [Dhillon] … Justin’s just special when it comes to giving assists. He’s been leading our team for assists for like three years … in terms of just like, having eyes in the back of his head – that’s literally what he has. I didn’t even think he knew that I was there but obviously he did so, thanks to him for being able to get the goal.”
(On the team’s chemistry…)
“I think every person that we put out there is solid – I think it’s just a matter of the day. Sometimes, for example, we made a couple mistakes. But that’s just football, you know? Nobody’s ever going to be perfect, the same way our back can make mistakes the same way our front can make mistakes. You know there were a couple of times that maybe we could’ve put the ball on target and we weren’t able to, just like we made mistakes in the back so it’s not really a matter of a specific person, it’s more so us just clicking together as a group.”
