Toros Score Pair of Late Goals to Defeat Locomotive FC

El Paso Locomotive FC fell to the Rio Grande Valley Toros by the score of 2-0 Wednesday night at Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso. This result snaps El Paso’s two match winning streak they came into the midweek contest.

It was the first time the Toros defeated El Paso in the Borderland. Two goals in the span of eight minutes in the second half gave the team from south Texas the historic win for their club.

Meanwhile, Locomotive has to hope that not being able to obtain any points at home this late into the regular season does not cost them as far as making the playoffs. The Locos continue to sit in sixth place in their conference, barely hanging on to a playoff spot with a handful of teams that are on the outside looking in taking aim to overtake them in the standings. Seven teams make the playoffs.

Here’s what happened

The first real threat on goal in the match came in the 17th minute when Ricky Ruiz took a strike that hit the right post and bounced straight to an El Paso defender.

The first half ended in a scoreless draw with an opening 45 minutes that were characterized by a lot of back and forth offensive approximations but no real threats on goal.

The scoring opened in the 72nd minute when a Toros attack down the right flank led by Ruiz resulted in him crossing the ball into the box. The pass found Frank Lopez who did not hesitate to put the ball in the back of the net.

Eight minutes later the visiting Toros extended their lead when Christian Pinzon went down the left flank on a breakaway and was able to get the ball into the back of the net past goalkeeper Evan Newton. Two defenders for the Locos could not get there in time to prevent Pinzon from getting the shot off.

Any subs made by El Paso head coach John Hutchinson had no real effect on creating any kind of significant spark to change what would be the eventual outcome of the match.

What was said

After the match, El Paso head coach and technical director John Hutchinson called Wednesday night’s performance “uninspired” & “lethargic”, going as far as calling it his team’s “worst performance of the season”.

Hutchinson said he felt that perhaps the team’s performance and emotional win against New Mexico United last Friday night took too much out of them.

The Locomotive boss did acknowledge that his team still fought and put in an effort but it was not enough and that it was just not their night all round, highlighting the team’s lack of precision particularly in the offensive third.

What’s next

El Paso will now get several days to rest and prepare for their next match, approximately a week and a half. Locomotive will travel to southern California next weekend to face LA Galaxy II on Sunday evening. This match will be a must win match for El Paso as the team known affectionately as “Los Dos” is currently the first team on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs go. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 6 p.m. MST on Sunday Sept. 18th and will be televised nationally via streaming on ESPN+.