El Paso Locomotive FC (West-9, 10-11-6, 36 points) earned a crucial point in a hard fought 0-0 contest on the road against Orange County SC on Saturday evening, continuing the push for a postseason berth and snapping Orange County’s eight-match win streak.

Goalkeeper Benny Diaz registered two saves tonight to bring his clean sheet season total to eight and El Paso’s defense registered 25 clearances, six interceptions and won eight-of-nine tackles to limit Orange County’s offense to just two shots on target.

Locomotive now prepare for a quick turnaround on the road at Las Vegas Lights FC on Wednesday, September 13.

FORECAST: 77ºF, cloudy
ATTENDANCE: N/A

TEAM NOTES    

  • With tonight’s result, El Paso snapped Orange County’s 8-match win streak.
  • Goalkeeper Benny Diaz recorded his eighth clean sheet of the regular season. He sits joint-second in the Western Conference in clean sheets, joint-fifth in the league. He also has 74 saves in 2023, third in the Western Conference and fifth in the league.
  • Defender Noah Dollenmayer led the night in tackles (three-for-four) and clearances (eight).
  • Forward Petur Knudsen made his official Locomotive debut, coming in as a second half substitute.

SCORING SUMMARY    

  • N/A

LINEUPS     

ELP – (5-3-2) Benny Diaz, Marc Navarro, Erik McCue, Noah Dollenmayer (Jose Carrillo), Nick Hinds, Miles Lyons, Louis Herrera – C, Liam Rose, Aaron Gomez, Denys Kostyshyn (Petur Knudsen), Ricardo Zacarias (Emmanuel Sonupe)

Subs Not Used: Javier Garcia, Diego Abarca, Petar Petrovic, Chris Garcia

OC – (4-1-4-1) Juan Santana, Ryan Doghman, Dillon Powers, Markus Nakkim – C, Owen Lambe, Kevin Partida, Milan Iloski (Marc McNulty), Kyle Scott (Andrew Fox), Seth Casiple, Brian Iloski (Kevin Lankford), Thomas Amang

Subs Not Used: Fernando Aguirre, Brent Richards, Benjamin Barjolo, Benjamin Norris

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY    

  • ELP – Marc Navarro (Yellow) 20′, Miles Lyons (Yellow) 33′, Nick Hinds (Yellow) 35′, Liam Rose (Yellow) 60′
  • OC – Kyle Scott (Yellow) 30′, Markus Nakkim (Yellow) 69′, Marc McNulty (Yellow) 90+1′ Kevin Partida (Yellow) 90+2′

MATCH STATS: ELP | OC

GOALS: 0|0   
ASSISTS: 0|0    
POSS. %: 50|50   
SHOTS: 7|11   
SHOTS ON GOAL: 0|2
SAVES: 2|0   
FOULS: 19|21   
OFFSIDES: 0|2
CORNERS: 1|4   

UP NEXT: Wednesday, September 13 at Las Vegas Lights FC. Kickoff set for 8:30 p.m. MT at Cashman Field.