While Oakland eventually earned the win, the beginning of the match was far from what the club was looking for, as El Paso netted a goal that was disallowed for offsides in just the 2nd minute, and followed it up with an official tally just seconds later in the 3rd when Alvaro Quezada played a pass into the six-yard box to Rubio Rubin who netted it to make it 1-0.
Following the goal, Oakland began to find their footing in the match, testing Locomotive’s back line with deep lobs into the attacking third and maintaining more possession with cleaner passing.
Things changed drastically in the 18th minute when one of those long balls, off the foot of Neveal Hackshaw who made his 100th appearance in an Oakland kit, found Wolfgang Prentice alone in behind the defense. El Paso’s Palermo Ortiz made contact with Prentice, causing him to lose his balance. Because it was a denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity, Ortiz was shown a straight red card, forcing Locomotive to play the remaining 70+ minutes down a man.
Oakland immediately began to pester El Paso’s defense, finding plenty of space to work with and maintaining possession while looking for openings to exploit.
After nearly 30 minutes of constant pressure, Roots finally broke through with an equalizer after an outlet pass to the left side from Hackshaw found Jesus De Vicente who curled a cross into the six yard box to find reigning USL Championship Player of the Week, Peter Wilson, taking an acrobatic touch to deposit his team leading 5th goal of the season to make it 1-1 in added time of the first half.
Oakland continued to dominate the pitch with the benefit of being up a player, finding a go-ahead goal from their newest addition Tucker Lepley, who shook two defenders near the top of the El Paso box before striking an absolute rocket into the top left corner less than 30 minutes into his club debut to give Roots a 2-1 lead in the 83rd minute.
Roots had a few opportunities to add on to the score before the final whistle, but will be content to pocket the three points in league play before returning to Prinx Tires USL Cup action for their next match when the club hosts rivals Sacramento Republic FC next Saturday, May 16th at 5 PM PT.
Talking with Head Coach Ryan Martin
What are your thoughts on the performance tonight and the result in the end?
Yeah, proud, obviously, to get three points against a really good El Paso team. I was disappointed with the start to the match. I thought we came out a little bit slow and sluggish. The words I’d use are ‘lacked urgency’ in terms of our performance in the first half in particular, and I think at the end we had a couple of turnovers that we could have managed a little bit better.
Oakland Roots SC vs El Paso Locomotive FC
USL Championship | May 9, 2026
Venue: Oakland Coliseum | Oakland, CA
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: 65°F, Clear Skies
SCORELINE:
OAK: 2
ELP: 1
SCORING SUMMARY:
ELP: Rubio Rubin 3’
OAK: Peter Wilson 45’+
OAK: Tucker Lepley 83’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
ELP: Palermo Ortiz (red card) 18’
ELP: Rubio Rubin (yellow card) 59’
OAK: Florian Valot (yellow card) 90’+
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Tommy McCabe, Bobosi Byaruhanga (Tucker Lepley), Wolfgang Prentice, Peter Wilson, Jesus De Vicente (Jackson Kiil), Neveal Hackshaw, Keegan Tingey (Tyler Gibson), Bertin Jacquesson (Florian Valot), Raphael Spiegel, Michael Edwards, Faysal Bettache (Danny Trejo)
Unused subs: Kendall McIntosh, Ali Elmasnaouy, Bradley Roberson
Shots: 15 | Shots On Goal: 4 | Corner Kicks: 6 | Fouls: 10 | Offside: 7 |
EL PASO LINEUP: Abraham Romero, Eric Calvillo (Danny Gomez), Amando Moreno (Diego Abita), Rubio Rubin, Gabriel Torres (Noah Dollenmayer), Alvaro Quezada, Alex Mendez (Omar Mora), Kofi Twumasi, Palermo Ortiz, Robert Coronado (Carl Sainte), Tony Alfaro
Unused subs: Sebastian Mora-Mora, Nicolas Cardona, Kenny Hoban
Shots: 5 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 1 | Fouls: 7 | Offside: 2 |
