Locos Win Fourth in a Row and Move To First Place

El Paso Locomotive FC reeled off their 4th win in a row Wednesday night against Colorado Switchbacks FC defeating them 2-1 in front of a home crowd at Southwest University Park. The midweek victory moved the Locos to first place in Group C of the USL Championship. The Locos have also not lost in 7 matches.

Wednesday night’s match got off to a vanilla start as both teams came out the gates rather calm. Only a handful of threatening chances on goal were produced by each team in the first 45 minutes. The only difference was that in the closing minutes of the first half El Paso showed the start of some consistent offensive urgency.

That offensive spark carried into the opening minutes of the second half. That mindset paid off as in the 53 minute the Locos had their first corner kick of the half. The ball was centered in by Richie Ryan and Saeed Robinson scored off of a header. Robinson’s header was full intent and he placed the ball right where he intended to.

The Locomotive would subtly take control of the match. Mark Lowry would then decide to make a double substitution in the 64th minute. He would pull both forwards Leandro Carrijo and Saeed Robinson and bring on Omar Salgado and Aaron Gomez in a position for position substitution. Eleven minutes later Salgado would receive a pass from Bryam Rebellon as he made his run down the left flank. He decided to face the Switchbacks goalkeeper one on one and took left footed strike that came off like a laser and found the back of the net for the 2-0 lead.

Colorado would not go down without a fight as in the 81st minute they would get on the board when Mamandi Camara would get a ball from the right flank and take his shot of goal. The shot would be deflected by Locomotive defender Mechack Jerome and get past goalkeeper Logan Ketterer.

Mark Lowry had plenty to say after this match regarding the team’s performance in front of what was another sold out crowd of 1,519 fans. Lowry said, "Tactically we managed the game well. We made adjustment to how they pressed us which allowed us to control the game in the second half. We went two-nil up and then Colorado are a tough team, they hang around, they stick to you and they don’t give in. They are a dangerous team, they got some players that can hurt you and they got their goal that made the last 10 minutes interesting…I thought our guys showed a lot of character to get the win."

The team from the 915 will conclude their 3-match week this Saturday as they will host Real Monarchs. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 7:30pm. The match will be televised locally on the CW and nationally on ESPN+.