Energy completes season sweep of Tulsa
ENERGY 1, ROUGHNECKS 0
Oklahoma City’s offensive woes of late seem to be resolved whenever the Energy plays the Tulsa Roughnecks.
Wojciech Wojcik scored moments before halftime and the Energy survived a late-game scare while completing a four-game season sweep of Tulsa with a 1-0 win on Saturday night at Taft Stadium.
Oklahoma City moved to 10-4-10 and gained a critical three standings points in its bid to earn a home game in the USL’s Western Conference playoffs. The Energy, who entered the game fifth in the conference standings but within six points of first, now have 43 points and could jump as high as third with the win, depending on the results of games late Saturday involving the four teams who started the night ahead of them.
The Energy has stayed in contention despite its lack of scoring in recent weeks thanks in good part to its success against Tulsa. In Oklahoma City’s last eight soccer games, it has been shut out five times but has also beaten Tulsa 3-0, 2-0 and 1-0, with the latter two results coming in the last eight days. The Energy outscored the Roughnecks 8-0 this season in winning the Black Gold Derby for the second straight year.
“I thought we dominated the game completely,” Energy coach Jimmy Nielsen said. “We had a lot of chances. We hit the post three times. … It was very close to being the same old story, but we got the goal.
“We moved the ball around well. The only thing that was missing was more goals, but we got the one goal and we kept the shutout. We’ve got to look on the bright side. … The guys battled through 90 minutes and did a rock-solid job.”
Oklahoma City twice hit the post with shots in the first half — first on a header by Michael Byskov in the 30th minute, and again in the 40th minute on a shot by Kalen Ryden in a scramble off a corner kick. Tulsa goalkeeper Jake Feener — back after missing two games due to concussion-like symptoms — also made a pair of strong saves on shots by Danni Konig and Michael Thomas.