Toyota Field – The rings were given out, championship flag raised and the banners were unveiled in a pregame ceremony. After that there was not much for the fans of the San Antonio Scorpions to cheer about as the club dropped yet another season opener.
Omar Cummings scored the loan goal for the red and black as the Scorpions fell 1-3 to the Tampa Bay Rowdies in front of 6,723 fans at Toyota Field on Saturday night.
Tampa Bay got the scoring started early as defender Stefan Antonijevic put a header past Scorpions goalkeeper Jon Kempin in the 10th minute to put the Rowdies up by a goal. The visitors went up by two goals as Darwin Espinal poked the ball into the goal, out of the reach of Kempin just before halftime. The rest of the half got physical and chippy as several yellow cards were handed out, but Tampa Bay held the 0-2 lead at the break.
In the second half, the Rowdies added to their lead. A San Antonio turnover led to the goal as Corey Hertzog got the ball inside the box and fired it past Kempin to give Tampa Bay the 0-3 advantage. The Scorpions finally got on the scoreboard in stoppage time as Rafael Castillo sent a shot towards the net that went off the bar. The ball bounced right to Cummings as he beat Tampa Bay goalkeeper Kamil Contofalsky to finalize the scoring at 1-3.
“Going down three goals at home is unacceptable,” Cummings said after the game. “That cannot happen, you dig yourself a hole so first and foremost you have to stop teams from scoring against you. Then you can go look for goals.”
The Scorpions had two good chances to score in the match. In the first half, Marvin Chavez sent a shot that bounced off Contofalsky and hit the bar before rolling away from the net. In the second half, Chavez got close again as his shot went off the bar, staying out of the net.
“It’s part of the game,” Scorpions head coach Alen Marcina said. “Those two big opportunities off the bar and there was other opportunities as well. Like I said, we have to do a better job of putting them in the back of the net. That will come with time because we have the players to do so.”
The Scorpions are now 0-0-1 (0 points) on the season and will return to the pitch in two weeks after their bye week to welcome Indy Eleven to Toyota Field on Saturday April 18 at 7:30 p.m.
