LOYAL IMPROVE TO 2-0 WITH WIN
A win over a conference rival. A 2-0 start to the USL Championship season.
So far so good for San Diego Loyal SC after a 3-0 victory over Phoenix Rising SC Sunday afternoon in front of a reported 5,114 at Torero Stadium.
Evan Conway, Ronaldo Damus and Blake Bodily scored goals while goalkeeper Koke Vegas made three saves and earned his second clean sheet in as many weeks.
The Loyal opened with a 1-0 home win over Detroit last Saturday and completed another shutout despite Phoenix enjoying a 67 percent to 33 percent edge in possession and finishing with a 16-10 advantage in total shots.
“To me (the shutout) was more important than the goal,” said Bodily, who played the entire game and impacted play at both ends with his speed and work rate. “To go into halftime up 1-0 and not having our best half, we just wanted to get that clean sheet. That’s ultimately the best thing for us.”
Timely saves, a deadly counterattack and crisp finishing were the keys to the win.
Conway opened scoring in the 44th minute when he timed a run into the Phoenix box nicely and received a perfectly placed pass from Charlie Adams while splitting a pair of defenders before beating keeper Rocco Rios Nova with a right-footed shot for his first goal of the season.
Conway, who scored nine goals last season while playing on the wing, is making the shift to striker up top in a 3-4-2-1 formation San Diego has played through two matches.
Damus, who signed with the club on Monday, opened his account with a pretty goal in the 74th minute.
After a driving run by Collier was thwarted, Damus picked up a loose ball just outside of the box, cut right and curved a shot that sliced through a pair of defenders before slamming off the right post before bouncing past a diving Nova.
Phoenix (0-1-1) produced dangerous scoring chances in the 66th, 67th and 69th minutes but Edwin Munjoma pushed a shot wide and Koke made saves on shots from Carlos Harvey and Manuel Arteaga.
Bodily capped the scoring in the 90th minute when he made a sprinting run up the left flank, took a nice feed from Collier and sliced a left-footed shot that cut across the goal area and into the far corner.
The 23-year-old Damus comes from Swedish seconddivision club GIF Sundsvall and previously played with Orange County SC of the USL.
He came on in the 61st minute for Conway and immediately flashed the speed and playmaking that allowed him to score 18 goals in all competitions while helping Orange County win the 2021 USL championship.
The Haitian national not only scored a highlight-quality goal, he also tracked back for at least one tackle and some other active defensive plays.
“With players like that, you don’t bring them in and change them,” Loyal coach Nate Miller said. “You make sure you put him exactly where he’s going to be most successful. You saw today his commitment to the defensive side and his ability to score out of nowhere. … You let a guy like that fly, and keep it simple.”