SAN ANTONIO, Texas — San Antonio FC needed only a draw on the last day of the USL Championship regular season, and it took care of business with a 2-1 win over Orange County SC on Saturday at Toyota Field in San Antonio to lock up a playoff place.
The result sends the club to the postseason for the second year in a row under head coach Carlos Llamosa and for the sixth time in its 11 seasons.
Emil Cuello put San Antonio in front in the 15th minute, squeezing a shot home from a sharp angle inside the box off a feed from Nelson Flores Blanco. It was the defender’s fourth goal of the season. Cristian Parano doubled the lead in the 59th minute when he pounced on a rebound for his sixth league goal, which leads the team. Orange County got one back through Chris Hegardty in the 86th minute, but San Antonio held on through a frantic finish in front of 6,069 fans.
With 45 points from an 11-7-12 record, San Antonio ends up sixth in the West. The club is 8-1-1 when it scores first and has not lost in five matches in which Parano has scored. The win also evened the season series with Orange County, which handed San Antonio its first loss of the year back in April.
Next up is a Texas road trip in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. San Antonio visits El Paso Locomotive FC at Southwest University Park on Friday, Oct. 30, with kickoff at 8 p.m. Central. El Paso entered its own finale Saturday in first place but lost 1-0 to New Mexico United on a stoppage-time goal and slid to third. It is the second year in a row that El Paso will host a first-round playoff match on its home field.
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