Locomotive Gift Returning Fans With 2-1 Win Over Real Monarchs

For El Paso Locomotive FC, the winning scoreline is not representative of the dominant performance that they put on in their 2-1 win against the Real Monarchs Saturday night at Southwest University Park. Last night’s win will be extra memorable as 800 fans were in attendance for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those fans witnessed live, the Locos fourth win of the season, giving the Locomotive 15 points after 9 matches as a result of 4 wins, 3 draws, and 2 loses. Those 15 points puts El Paso firmly in second place of group C of this abbreviated and altered 2020 USL Championship Season.

The win also extends the Locos undefeated streak to 4 matches.

The first threat on goal for the Locomotive came in the first 5 minutes of the match. Both teams settled in to what was a very vertical match where both teams were very proactive to create chances on goal. At about the 35th minute mark El Paso began to really dominate in the chances created department and never looked back.

Despite the 0-0 score at halftime, it would appear that the Locos were the team closer to getting the first goal.
It would take less than 10 minutes for exactly that to happen, as defender Brent Kallman was left unmarked on a corner kick in the 53rd minute and was able to head the ball into the back of the net, making it look as easy as a 2-foot putt.
The team from Utah however would not go away, as in the 81st minute the Monarchs evened the score with a goal from Kyle Coffee on a counterattack that was generated from the right flank. Coffee received a crossing pass and put it away from just behind the penalty spot.

The match winner would come in the 86th minute when Bryam Rebellon would take a left footed strike off of a whiffed clearance attempt by a Monarchs defender that would find the back of the net for the win.

After the match, El Paso head coach, Mark Lowry commented on the team’s execution and win. Lowry said the win was "fully deserved, we made it difficult for ourselves and the performance probably warranted a 2 or 3-0 victory but we got the win, that’s important and we did get a good performance and a good attacking display. We just got to clean up on the execution of shots."

As for the fans being back in attendance Lowry commented, "There’s a difference, you know when you score you feel the energy. Even though there were only 800 you definitely felt the presence and it was so nice to have that. I hope that everyone did the right thing, got home safe and there is no fallout from this, that’s the most important thing and we can do this again and maybe even raise the amount of people because we definitely found the presence. It was great."

Up next for the team from the 915 will be a midweek road match at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC on Wednesday night. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 7pm MST. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.