SAN ANTONIO – Jorge Hernández and Dmitri Erofeev scored either side of halftime to lead San Antonio FC to a 2-0 victory against Lexington SC on Sunday afternoon at Toyota Field, sending SAFC to the top of the USL Championship’s Western Conference at the end of the first month of the season.
The hosts threatened early on a long-range blast by Mitchell Taintor that clipped the crossbar, but after a longer spell of pressure midway through the first half the breakthrough arrived. After holding play inside the Lexington attacking third, Christan Sorto’s shot took a deflection off a defender and Hernández was the first to react, putting home a sliding finish past the advancing goalkeeper.
San Antonio maintained the upper hand into the second half and doubled its lead with 15 minutes to go as a driving run from midfield and centering pass by Cristian Parano set up Erofeev at the top of the box, and the Russian’s finish picked out the right corner. Lexington almost pulled back a goal six minutes later only for Marcus Epps’ finish from the center of the box to be blocked to safety by SAFC’s Tiago Suarez, helping preserve the shutout and all three points
Takeaways
San Antonio FC – For a second consecutive outing, San Antonio’s high-pressing approach paid dividends, helping tilt the field toward Lexington SC for good portions of the game. That pressure paid off in the opening goal for Jorge Hernández, setting the side on the way to another impressive victory.
Lexington SC – Lexington was unable to capitalize on its opportunities when they arose as it suffered a second defeat this season. LSC recorded a second-high 26 crosses but was unable to sufficiently test SAFC goalkeeper Joey Batrouni until late on as he posted a one-save shutout.