Winless streak

Roughnecks close out disappointing season

For the Tulsa Roughnecks FC, the final game went pretty much as the entire season did.

The Sacramento Republic FC jumped out to a 2-0 lead after just 19 minutes, carried a 3-0 advantage into halftime and closed out the Roughnecks’ second United Soccer League season with a 4-0 triumph on Sept. 24 in front of 4,158 faithful fans at ONEOK Field.

Tulsa finished the year on a 10-game winless streak (0-9-1), a stretch in which they were outscored 24-3, winding up with a final record of 5-21-4, the worst mark in the USL. 

The Roughnecks scored a league-low 25 goals in 30 games, while surrendering a USL-high 64 against. In the second half of games, Tulsa was outscored 36-11. Still, they finished eighth in the 29-team league in average attendance with 3,950.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said Tulsa coach David Irving, the frustration of the season clearly wearing on him. “It’s been very disappointing. We got to really look to 2017 and, obviously, we got to do a lot better than this, that’s for sure. It’s been a challenging year for everyone—the organization, the players, me—everyone.”

Clearly, a lack of quality offense was an issue in the club’s disappointing performance, although striker Sammy Ochoa enjoyed another outstanding year. After leading the Roughnecks with nine goals last year, Ochoa scored a team-high of 11 this time around, tied for eighth in the USL, accounting for a full 44 percent of the team’s overall offensive output. He also added six assists to finish sixth in the league with 28 points.

No other player had more than local product (Union High School, University of Tulsa) Cristian Mata’s four goals and no one else had more than two assists. Last year, six different players notched four or more goals.

But the biggest Achilles’ heel for the squad was shaky goalkeeping. 

Tulsa starting goalkeeper Alex Mangels once led the USL in saves and save percentage, but he also dealt with nagging injuries, suiting up for just one of the final six matches. Despite playing in just 17 games, he finished second in the league with 93 saves, while his final save percentage of .782 was fourth among ‘keepers who played a minimum of six games.

But Jake Feener, who claimed the starting job midway through last season but ended up serving as Mangels’ backup for most of this year, didn’t fare as well. In 14 appearances, Feener allowed 37 goals—tied for second-most in the USL—for a league-high 2.93 goals-against average, with a save percentage of .584.

“We let awful goals in, it’s just terrible,” Irving said. “You can’t legislate for that, it’s been every game. The goalkeeper, pretty poor. And he knows it, but what are you going to do? We win as a team, we lose as a team, but that’s just the way it’s been going. It’s tough to change. You can’t beat yourself.” 

The lone bright spot for the Roughnecks in the season finale was the play of rookie goalkeeper Hunter Harrison, who made his first appearance coming in to replace Feener after halftime, with Tulsa already down 3-0. 

Harrison, who played a year at Oral Roberts University and spent most of the season inactive as the Roughnecks’ third goalkeeper, made three saves, all of them difficult ones, and generally looked solid.

“It felt nice to finally play in my first game,” Harrison said. “It’s been a year since I played, so it takes hard work, a lot of training, a lot of progress. It takes a lot of help from your teammates to keep your confidence going when you’re not playing. And when you get your chance, you got to go out there and play.”

The Republic scored the last goal just seconds before the final whistle as Harry Williams drilled a 15-yard shot past the diving Harrison just inside the right goalpost—one final kick in the Roughnecks’ pants to close out the year,.

Somehow that seemed like a fitting end to a frustrating season for Tulsa, one that started out with an encouraging 2-0 win in the first game but was quickly followed by an 0-5-1 winless skid. Things spiraled from there, as the Roughnecks lost five straight games and were 2-10-2 after 14 outings. A promising 3-2-1 stretch followed that, but the Roughnecks couldn’t sustain the momentum, last tasting victory on July 30. 

But as Irving pointed out, while the results didn’t go their way, they always put forth an inspired effort.

“A least I can say this – we always tried, they never quit on me, and regardless of the results, they worked their socks off,” Irving said. “We weren’t quite good enough …  but all credit to them, they could have lied down and rolled over, but they showed up for practice every day.”

For more from John, read his article on the group of Tulsa youth hockey players who competed in China.