Sam Rogers scored his first professional goal but Seattle Sounders 2 couldn’t quite complete a late comeback attempt, falling to San Antonio FC 3-2 in their Tuesday night home fixture at Starfire Sports Complex.
A’kwafei Ajeakwa, Billy Forbes and Devin Vega all netted for the visitors, while Zach Mathers scored a second-half penalty kick to round off the scoring for S2, which fell to 2-5-0 on the season with result.
Ajeakwa gave the visitors the lead in the 13th minute after he tapped home a point-blank finish off a feed from Ben Newnam, putting S2 in the early hole. Forbes then doubled the lead just 10 minutes later off a counterattack that culminated with a nifty finish past a diving S2 goalkeeper Tyler Miller, pushing the lead to 2-0.
S2 very nearly pulled one back in the 27th minute off a shot from Irvin Parra that was headed directly toward the top corner of the net, but a San Antonio defender managed to clear the shot off the line at the last possible second.
San Antonio narrowly missed another chance of its own just before the halftime whistle after defender Sebastian Ibeagha got his head to a corner kick and put the shot on target. But Miller laid out to his right to deflect the shot away and the 2-0 scoreline would hold going into halftime.
Rogers would hack into that deficit in half 10 minutes into the second half after getting on the end of a free kick from midfielder Zach Mathers. The Sounders’ Academy product allowed the ball to take one bounce before rifling a first-time volley past San Antonio backstop Diego Restrepo, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
San Antonio bagged the decisive goal in the 69th minute, however, after Vega made a solo run on goal and managed to slot the finish past Miller to give the visitors the 3-1 lead. S2 would pull one back in the 75th after Mathers converted a penalty kick drawn by Parra but San Antonio would manage to hold the rest of the way and seal the result.
S2 will look to bounce back from the defeat as they return to action this Saturday, April 29, with a Western Conference road matchup with Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
