(DUDLEY FIELD, El Paso, TX) - In a Red, White and Blue July 4th evening, the El Paso Patriots declared their interdependence, riding some of the best teamwork of the season to a 2-0 win over a physical Cincinnati Riverhawks team to reclaim second place in the Central Division.
Returning to historic Dudley Field - the team's original professional home - the Patriots found their touch on the soft natural turf to bust out of a two-match losing skid in front of a season-best crowd of 2,189.
El Paso used incisive passes from a midfield retooled by new coach Jesus Enriquez, who earned his first win - among other changes, midfielder Jose Abarca started his first match this season in the playmakers' role - and the Patriots dominated play from the beginning, starting the fireworks early by getting both goals in the first half of play.
Goalkeeper Scott Alexander also picked up his fourth shutout of the season against the A-League's second best goal-scoring team. Solid defense helped, as Alexander was only forced to make four saves in the match.
Another of Enriquez's moves was taking Enrique Cervantes off the wing and moving him to forward, a move that paid dividends in the 28th minute.
After threatening Cincinnati goalkeeper Eric Pattison a number of times in the opening minutes, El Paso got loose on the Riverhawks' wings as Junro Narita, Cervantes and Laurenco Andrade traded crossing passes in the Cincinnati area. Cervantes finally pinged a pass from the left post across the box to Andrade near the right. Andrade pounced on the service, leaning back to chip the shot up and off the fingers of a diving Pattison, who had guessed Andrade would shoot low. The ball bounced high and off the roof of the netting for the score.
The larger Riverhawks turned up the heat with a number of hard fouls, but the Patriots kept finding their way behind Cincinnati's back four, striking again in the 41st minute courtesy of the vision of their starting central midfielder.
Loose on the right wing, Abarca slid a pass to Freddy Juárez behind the defense. One-on-one against Pattison at the six-yard box, Juárez sent his shot low and under the goalkeeper for the goal.
In the second half, the Riverhawks' offense awoke, but twice the post robbed them, sending Allen Eller and Edward Child away empty-handed. The other times, it was Alexander who stole Cincinnati's thunder. Salvatore Piraine and John Cipriani both got their shots over the defense and under the crossbar, only to be turned away by the former Cal-State Fullerton star's aerial prowess.
The match was marred by a number of hard fouls, as both teams picked up where they left off at the Riverhawks' Town and Country Stadium, each earning five cards. One of Cincinnati's was red, though, as Juaquin Palomeque was sent off by referee Ricardo Valenzuela for a hard foul on Abarca in the 65th minute, forcing the Riverhawks to play the final 25 minutes one man down.
El Paso (7-7-2, 23 points) will try to increase its lead over Cincinnati (7-9-0, 21 points) Sunday at Dudley, as the two teams meet again at 6 p.m. MDT.
EL PASO 2, CINCINNATI 0
Scoring: EP, Andrade (28, Cervantes). EP, Juárez (41, Abarca).
CINCINNATI: Eric Pattison, Jeremy Piette, Joe Morelli, Rasool Alizadeh (53, Juaquin Palomeque), John Cipriani, Edward Child, Allen Eller, Marcel Matis (85, Tim Finklea), Juan Sastoque (55, Andres Murriagui), Craig Yacks, Salvatore Piraine (65, Logan Wallace).
EL PASO: Scott Alexander, Sidnei dos Santos, Carlos Martinez, Hamlet Diaz, Pablo Cabrera, Jose Abarca (79, Mario Garcia), Junro Narita (82, Victor Arreola), Javier Carrazco (65, Ahmed Figueroa), Freddy Juárez, Enrique Cervantes (82, Tim Pierce), Laurenco Andrade.
Shots: C 3-4-7, EP 7-3-10. Saves: C 5-2-7, EP 1-3-4. Offsides: C 3-1-4, EP 2-1-3. Corner Kicks: C 4-3-7, EP 5-2-7. Cautions: C 4 (Matis 42, Alizadeh 42, Yacks 45, Eller 50), EP 5 (Andrade 40, Diaz 45, Alexander 49, Juárez 63, dos Santos 70). Ejections: C 1 (Palomeque 65). Officials: Ricardo Valenzuela, Fernando Galvan, Kyle Borne, Andrew Ga
