Orange County SC’s Harry Forrester celebrates after scoring his first USL Championship goal in a 2-2 draw against Fresno FC in Fresno | Photo courtesy of Fresno FC
Fresno, Calif. - Orange County SC traveled to Fresno looking to find their first road win of the season, and on paper this looked to be a tough task. Fresno FC had yet to lose and had only given up three goals in five games, but this did not seem to bother Orange County in the first half.
In the 4th minute, on a free kick, Jerry van Wolfgang sent a ball into the box and managed to miss everyone, but it did not miss the back of the net. Van Wolfgang’s first goal of the season set the tone for Orange County in the first half. After the game he pointed to the fast start saying, “the plan was to come out strong, because the first 10 to 15 minutes is where we lacked. I was very happy to see that we were dominating from the start.”
In the 12th minute, Orange County had a throw in deep in attacking third. Aodhan Quinn threw it right to Harry Forrester, who made a great turn to give himself space and buried a stunning strike to the top right corner for his first of the season as well.
Late in the first half, after a great press from Frankie Amaya, he found himself one on one versus Fresno goal keeper C.J. Cochran but Cochran made a very important save keeping the deficit to two at the end of the first half.
In the second half, Fresno came out fast, but Orange County was up to the task. Orange County keeper Aaron Cervantes had another amazing save in the 51st minute that kept Fresno frustrated and preserved the clean sheet.
Orange County’s defense looked up to the task for most of the second half, but in the 79th minute Fresno managed to claw a goal back. After a cross put the ball in the box, Fresno’s Jackson headed the ball back across the box, where Christian Chaney headed it into the net. Five minutes later, Fresno struck again after an hand ball was called. Captain Juan Pablo Caffa bent a free kick into the top right corner to bring Fresno even at two.
Orange County fought hard all the way till the final whistle and they had a chance with a late free kick. Seth Moses picked up a second yellow after fouling Charlie Adams, but the free kick hit the wall. Despite their best efforts, Orange County could not find a way to put in their third goal of the game. Jerry van Wolfang pointed to some positives in the match saying, “Overall, we have turned a good direction and we continue to grow.”
Orange County did pick up an important road point, and they look forward to continuing their home win streak on May 4th against Phoenix Rising FC. This is a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals.
Scoring:
4’: Jerry van Wolfgang
12’: Harry Forrester (Aodhan Quinn)
79’: Christian Chaney (Jackson)
84’: Juan Pablo Caffa
Discipline:
25’: Michael Seaton (Yellow)
25’: Ramón Del Campo (Yellow)
65’: Jerry van Wolfgang (Yellow)
68’: Hugo Arellano (Yellow)
69’: Liam Trotter (Yellow)
75’: Seth Moses (Yellow)
86’: Daniel Cistostomo (Yellow)
90+2’: Seth Moses (2nd Yellow/Red)