From the first whistle,\u00a0the\u00a0match was back-and-forth with scoring attempts from both sides\u00a0early on.\u00a0The first several minutes tested\u00a0goalkeeper Kendall Starks\u00a0as he fended off two quick shots from North\u00a0Texas,\u00a0but\u00a0remained aggressive on the line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With dangerous shots from\u00a0Kimani Stewart-Baynes\u00a0and Josh Copeland\u00a0in the attacking third, Colorado found opportunities early.\u00a0However, North Texas would find the back of the net first with goals\u00a0from\u00a0Edouard\u00a0Nys in the 24th minute\u00a0and\u00a0another in\u00a0the 42nd\u00a0minute.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Determined to end the half with something to show for their efforts, Rapids 2 would get their chance when North Texas\u00a0committed a handball just outside the top of the box\u00a0with\u00a0three\u00a0minutes\u00a0remaining\u00a0in stoppage time. Chris Aquino would step up to take the free kick, sinking a\u00a0curling\u00a0shot from his left foot that\u00a0slid past the goalkeeper into the upper left corner of the net.\u00a0The\u00a0goal marked Aquino\u2019s first for Rapids 2 as well as the first of his MLS NEXT Pro career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Building\u00a0off\u00a0the energy of six\u00a0shots\u00a0on goal in the first half,\u00a0Rapids 2\u00a0started off the second half\u00a0pressing North Texas SC\u00a0from\u00a0the get-go. Starks continued\u00a0to make big-time saves\u00a0stopping breakaways,\u00a0but\u00a0Colorado would\u00a0eventually fall to North Texas SC,\u00a03-1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rapids 2\u00a0will have their home opener against\u00a0Sporting KC II\u00a0on Sunday, March\u00a015. Kickoff at\u00a0DICK\u2019S Sporting Goods Park\u00a0is set for 6:00 p.m. MT with coverage available on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rapids 2 midfielder\u00a0Nathan\u00a0Tchoumba\u00a0made his first professional start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rapids Academy\u00a0midfielder\u00a0Quinn Bedwell\u00a0made his professional debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rapids 2 midfielder\u00a0Chris Aquino\u00a0scored his first goal for Rapids 2 and the\u00a012th\u00a0of his MLS NEXT Pro career.<\/p>\n
Colorado Rapids 2:\u00a0Kendall Starks, Jabari De Coteau, Kai Thomas, Charlie Harper [C], Jaden Chan Tack\u00a0(90\u2019 + 2\u2019, Andre Erickson), Nathan\u00a0Tchoumba\u00a0(68\u2019 Landon Strohmeyer), Sydney\u00a0Wathuta, Josh Copeland,\u00a0Kimani Stewart-Baynes\u00a0(68\u2019 Bryce Jamison), Chris Aquino\u00a0(79\u2019 Rogelio Garcia), Donavan Phillip\u00a0(68\u2019 Quinn Bedwell)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unused substitutes:\u00a0\u00a0Dashiel\u00a0Williams, Vincent Rinaldi\u00a0<\/p>\n
North Texas SC:\u00a0Aiden Jordan,\u00a0Jonah\u00a0Biggar,\u00a0Slade Starnes [C], Jonah Gibson\u00a0(67\u2019 Enzo Newman),\u00a0Caleb Swann\u00a0(68\u2019 Diego Garcia), Timothy Ospina (46\u2019 Favour\u00a0Aroyameh), Jaidyn Contreras, Nathaniel James,\u00a0Edouard Nys\u00a0(81\u2019 Marlon\u00a0Luccin), Nicholas Simmonds\u00a0(85\u2019 Samuel\u00a0Sedeh)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unused substitutes:\u00a0Daniel Baran,\u00a0Christopher Salazar,\u00a0Wyatt Easterly, Thomas Burchfield\u00a0<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0Muhammad Kaleia;\u00a0Assistants:\u00a0Joe Suchoski,\u00a0William Aten;\u00a0Fourth Official:\u00a0Olvin Oliva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the first whistle,\u00a0the\u00a0match was back-and-forth with scoring attempts from both sides\u00a0early on.\u00a0The first several minutes tested\u00a0goalkeeper Kendall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74463,77567,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-195886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-colorado-rapids-2","tag-ntxvscol-03-07-2026","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}