Ever the defender, FC Tucson’s Luca Mastrantonio admitted that he was more excited about a late block of a Fort Lauderdale CF than scoring his first professional goal.
FC Tucson (8-8-5) extended its unbeaten streak to five matches with a 3-0 win over Fort Lauderdale CF on Saturday night at Kino North Stadium.
The Men in Black opened up the scoring in the 20th minute, when Mastrantonio headed in a goal off of a corner kick by midfielder Charlie Dennis.
“It was honestly more satisfying to have the block at the end rather than the goal,” Mastrantonio said. “For me as a defender I take pride in defending and keeping the clean sheet for me was my top priority.”
FC Tucson forward Deri Corfe scored the second goal in the 74th minute and then scored again in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
“It’s never a bad day to get a brace,” Corfe said. “I love scoring goals, so it was a good day in the office.”
This is FC Tucson’s longest unbeaten streak since the 2018 PDL regular season.
FC Tucson previously lost at Fort Lauderdale CF 5-1 on May 16 and beat the Herons 2-1 at home on July 3 and 4-0 on the road on Aug. 22.
The Men in Black have recorded three shut outs and two of those have been against Fort Lauderdale (7-10-5).
“It’s amazing: I don’t know, maybe it’s a coincidence, but it’s just great,” Mastrantonio said. “We’re going to start definitely getting clean sheets against other teams starting next week I’m sure but yeah it’s just satisfying to get clean sheets.”
FC Tucson moved up to fourth in the USL League One table. During their streak, FC Tucson has racked up a positive nine goal differential.
“It’s always important to score as many goals as possible as a team because you never know how important that’s gonna be, the league’s so tight at the minute, very little between each team, so goal differential is going to be a major key in pushing for playoffs,” Corfe said.
Up next for FC Tucson is a match on Sept. 19 at Greenville Triumph SC. Their next home match is Oct. 2 against North Texas SC.
Hero cup rescheduled
FC Tucson announced that the inaugural Hero Cup has been rescheduled for Sept. 24. The match up between DM United and the Tucson Police Department was originally scheduled for Aug. 17 before it was postponed due to rain.The match is free and will be held at the Kino North Stadium.
DM United is a side made up of Davis Monthan personnel. The team plays in the Tucson Metro Soccer League.
