Jorge Hernandez and Luke Haakenson find the net for SAFC
SAN ANTONIO (March 15, 2025) – San Antonio FC grabbed its second straight win Saturday, defeating Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 2-0 at Toyota Field.
Jorge Hernandez sent in his first goal of the season in style, taking in a long pass and rounding the Pittsburgh goalkeeper off his line to poach the opening score in the 55th minute.
A pair of fresh subs made an instant impact off the bench in the 88th minute, with Alex Greive poking the ball past a set of defenders and serving it into the box for Luke Haakenson to finish and secure the 2-0 result.
SAFC recorded its second consecutive clean sheet of the season, holding the Riverhounds to just one shot on target in the contest.
Scoring Summary:
SA: Jorge Hernandez (Assisted by Jimmy Medranda) 55’
SA: Luke Haakenson (Assisted by Alex Greive) 88’
Next Up
San Antonio FC heads on the road for the first time this season to take on Oakland Roots SC Saturday, March 22. Kickoff is set for 9:00 p.m. CT, and the match will be broadcast on ESPN+. The 10th anniversary season is presented by Toyota.
Postgame Notes:
- SAFC improves to 2-0-0 on the season with 6 points, tied for 1st place in the Western Conference standings.
- Midfielder Jorge Hernandez scored his first goal of the season and his sixth all-time for the club.
- Midfielder Luke Haakenson scored his first goal of the season and his third all-time for the club.
- Newcomers Jimmy Medranda and Alex Greive both recorded their first assists in the match.
- San Antonio outshot Pittsburgh 12-6 on the night.
- SAFC has scored in its last 11 home matches dating back to last season.
- Defender Mitchell Taintor moved into 11th place all-time in USL Championship regular-season minutes, now with 20,122 minutes in his career.
- SAFC has only allowed one shot on target through the first two matches this season.
- Midfielder Juan Osorio made his club debut in the match, playing the final five minutes.
- SAFC is undefeated in its last seven matches when scoring first.
Attendance: 5,876
SAFC Starting XI: Richard Sanchez, Mitchell Taintor, Alex Crognale, Jimmy Medranda, Rece Buckmaster (Juan Osorio 86’), Almir Soto (Lucio Berron 86’), Nicky Hernandez, Jorge Hernandez, Diogo Pacheco (Luke Haakenson 76’), Jake LaCava (Alex Greive 76’), Juan Agudelo (Alexis Souahy 76’)
Substitutions Not Used: Brandon Gongora, Daniel Namani, Mohamed Omar, Sebastian Seiterle
Disciplinary Summary:
SA: Yellow Card (Almir Soto) 34’
PIT: Yellow Card (Augi Williams) 42’
PIT: Yellow Card (Beto Ydarch) 72’
PIT: Yellow Card (Jorge Garcia) 87’
PIT: Yellow Card (Daniel Griffin) 90+7’
Quotes:
Head Coach Carlos Llamosa
(On the team’s dominant defense in the season so far…)
“I would say it’s our defense as a team, because it’s those guys up front that start the pressure. They’re dictating the game. We want to press and to win the ball, so those guys up front are doing an awesome job. Everybody in the back, they’re keeping the line high, making sure we don’t drop too much and are playing in front of our goalie, and as a group, I think we’ve been doing a tremendous job defensively. This one was kind of similar to last week’s game with the wind. The only difference is this time, we played the first half against the wind and didn’t have too many chances, but in the second half, we created chances and scored goals, so it’s good to see that.”
(On the team managing Pittsburgh’s physicality…)
“Well, they played a lot of long balls to the center forward. He’s a strong guy as their main target. I think our defenders managed it well, and then later in the second half, when we were up 2-0, they put another big target up front. I think when we went to three in the back, those guys did a tremendous job challenging those big targets. I thought we dominated that game with the long balls, and we knew to expect that, so our guys today were ready to match their physicality.”
Midfielder Luke Haakenson
(On what’s clicking for the team defensively…)
“I think we’re extremely organized. I think we’re very compact front to back, and I think you have 11 guys that are committed to doing a lot of work, so I don’t think it’s any one guy out there. I think if you look top to bottom, it’s a lot of guys who are committed to defending and putting in a shift, and you know, most of the time defense wins games, and you saw that tonight.
(On heading to the road the next two weeks…)
“If you look at our squad, we have a lot of experienced guys who have been around the league, been in other leagues. I don’t think travel is going to be an issue for us. I think if anything, it’s a time for us to bond even further, because we’re away from home, and we get to be together more on the road and spend time together even more, so I think it’s positive and it’ll be a good test next weekend.”
Midfielder Jorge Hernandez
(On the win…)
“It’s positive. I feel like we’ve been working hard in these past two weeks. Two games, two wins, two clean sheets, you know, we’re here to prove a point, and I feel like we started the season on the right foot.”
(On facing a tough team in Pittsburgh…)
“Pittsburgh is a great team, giving them credit. They’re good defensively, a very direct team, and I just felt like, you know, we were running the game first half. We were running, waiting for the chance and we got it, and we scored it first, and after that, I feel like the game opened up a little.”
