PHOENIX, Arizona (Saturday, September 2) – Phoenix Rising FC (11-8-8) won its third match in eight days, 2-0, tonight vs. Rio Grande Valley Toros (7-10-11) to move into fourth place in the Western Conference.
Danny Trejo scored his league leading 15th goal of the season while Manuel Arteaga remained right behind him, scoring his 14th. Mo Traore and Panoas Armenakas picked up assists in the win. Rising travels to Tulsa next weekend before returning to 38th St/Washington for Hispanic Heritage Night on Saturday, September 16.
Tonight, Trejo needed just two minutes to find the back of the net after Darnell King and Armenakas combined on the right side to set up the chance. Armenakas found himself in space near the top of the box but opted to pass to Trejo. The Phoenix forward dribbled towards goal and ripped a shot that knuckled towards goalkeeper Tyler Deric and then dipped away, towards the near post, bulging the net and giving Rising a very early 1-0 lead.
Rising broke through the high press of RGV in the 30th minute, leading Carlos Harvey to play a ball over the top to King. The wingback outpaced a Toros defender down the right sideline and got off a shot from a tight angle, while at full speed. Deric got big and found a way to block the initial shot from King and the follow up from Manuel Arteaga. Somewhere in the chaos, King picked up a knock and had to be replaced by Gabi Torres.
Arteaga made it 2-0 in the 39th minute when Harvey and Traore combined coming out of the back. No defenders stepped to Traore, so the defender carried the ball to 25 yards from goal before sending in a pass on the ground to the back post. The ball curled away from two defenders and sat up perfectly for Arteaga to hit with his first touch. The stellar pass allowed the forward to one-time a sliding shot past Deric for his 14th goal of the season.
Rising gave up five shots on goal in the second half, but Rocco Rios Novo stopped each one to pick up his fifth clean sheet of the season and third in the last seven games.
Scoring:
PHX – Danny Trejo (Panos Armenakas) 2
PHX – Manuel Arteaga (Mo Traore) 39
Discipline:
RGV – Taylor Davila (caution) 36
RGV – Frank Nodarse (caution) 45
RGV – Ricky Ruiz (caution) 55
PHX – Gabi Torres (caution) 56
PHX – Mo Traore (caution) 62
PHX – John Stenberg (caution) 68
Lineups:
Phoenix Rising FC – Rocco Rios Novo, Darnell King (Gabi Torres 31), Mo Traore (Henry Uzochukwu 79), Alejandro Fuenmayor, John Stenberg (Daniel Krutzen 86), Eddie Munjoma, Carlos Harvey (Renzo Zambrano 46), Jose Andres Hernandez, Panos Armenakas, Danny Trejo, Manuel Arteaga (Dariusz Formella 79).
Substitutes Not Used: Patrick Rakovsky, Fede Varela.
RGV Toros FC – Tyler Deric, Jonathan Ricketts (63), Eric Kinzner, Gabriel Benitez, Frank Nodarse, Juan Cabezas (Michael Knapp 80), Taylor Davila (Robert Coronado 85), Ricky Ruiz, Christian Pinzon, Juan Galindrez (Frank Lopez 63), Cristiano Francois (Ian Cerro 63).
Substitutes Not Used: Carlos Merancio, Tomas Ritondale, Jose Torres.
