The Swope Park Rangers moved within a point of first place in the USL’s Western Conference with a 1-0 road win at OKC Energy FC on Saturday. Hadji Barry converted a penalty kick in the 86th minute for his third goal of the season and Darrin MacLeod recorded four saves for his first clean sheet of the year.
Meeting for the first time since last year’s Western Conference Championship that ended in an 11-round shootout, a penalty kick once again proved to be the difference on Saturday. Richard Dixon was whistled for handling Barry’s cross from the endline and Barry stepped to the spot to send his penalty past Matt Van Oekel despite the OKC goalkeeper diving in the right direction.
Barry now has goals in back-to-back games for SPR, who extended the Energy’s scoreless streak to 429 minutes amidst a stretch of seven straight losses.
The Rangers kicked off a three-game road trip on Saturday and will now take a five-game unbeaten run into Wednesday’s match at Real Monarchs. Kick off is set for 8 p.m. CT at the brand new Zions Bank Stadium live on ESPN+.
Swope Park Rangers at OKC Energy FC
May 5, 2018 – Taft Stadium
Swope Park Rangers 1, OKC Energy FC 0
Scoring Summary:
SPR – Hadji Barry 3 (penalty kick) 86’
Misconduct Summary:
OKC – Ricard Dixon (caution) 13’
OKC – Christian Ibeagha (caution) 70’
OKC – Jose Angulo (caution) 79’
SPR – Amer Didic (caution) 82’
OKC – Matt Van Oekel (caution) 86’
SPR – Kharlton Belmar (caution) 92+
Swope Park Rangers: Darrin MacLeod; Bryam Rebellon, Amer Didic ©, Graham Smith, Parker Maher; Wan Kuzain Wan Kamal, Felipe Hernandez (Chase Minter 77), Gianluca Busio (Rodrigo Saravia 37); Tyler Blackwood (Wilson Harris 81), Hadji Barry, Kharlton Belmar
Subs not used: Christian Herrera, Matt Lewis, Matheus Silva, Camilo Benitez
