The Greens wasted no time in testing young Austin goalkeeper Juan Ramirez. Mekeil Williams’s swerving shot from the edge of the box in the 7th minute looked set for the top corner, but Ramirez, in his first start of the season, got a hand to tip it over the bar and deny Williams his first goal in Energy FC colors.

Atiba Harris nearly grabbed a goal on the resulting corner kick when he got his head to an Alexy Bosetti outswinger, but the ball just skipped wide of the post.

In the 18th minute, Cordell Cato stole the ball off defender Fabien Garcia to set up a breakaway with Ramirez. The keeper was quick off his line and made himself big to deny Cato from scoring the opening goal.

OKC made the breakthrough 10 minutes later when Omar Gordon won a header off a long ball from Cody Laurendi, ran the ball down in the corner, skipped past a defender at the end line and delivered a perfect, low cross for Deshorn Brown to tap into the back of the net.

The second half proved to be a different story, as Austin equalized in the 61st minute. Kris Tyrpak, after just subbing on, won the ball in the OKC third of the pitch, and his cross from the left wing found Valerii Saramutin, who was able to collect in the box and lift his shot over Laurendi.

Energy FC almost responded five minutes later when a through ball from Rafael Garcia found Cato in space, but his shot was straight at Ramirez.

Bold FC took the lead in the 80th minute after Callum Ross was judged to have handled the ball in the penalty area. Up stepped Kleber Giacomazzi, who sent Laurendi the wrong way to score what would be the match-winner.

Brown nearly found the equalizer for OKC in stoppage time on two occasions. One of his shots beat Ramirez but was cleared off the line by Amobi Okugo. The other, a volley from close range, just sailed over the bar.

Energy FC begin their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign Tuesday night at John Crain Field in Norman, Okla. in a rematch from last year’s 2nd round fixture against NTX Rayados. Kickoff for that one is set for 7:30 p.m and admission is free.

This Post-Match Recap is presented by Southern Nazarene University. Learn more about SNU’s MASMA program here.

Scoring Summary:

OKC: 0-1, Brown 28’

AUS: 1-1, Saramutin, 61’

AUS: 2-1, Giacomazzi, 80’

Disciplinary Summary:

AUS: Yellow Card (Guadarrama, 11’)

OKC: Yellow Card (Williams, 30’)

AUS: Yellow Card (Saramutin, 56’)

AUS: Yellow Card (Giacomazzi, 76’)

Austin Starting XI: GK: Juan Ramirez; D: Sean McFarlane Jr., Fabien Garcia (Jorge Troncoso, 46’), Jermaine Taylor, Demar Phillips; M: Amobi Okugo, Sonny Guadarrama (Kris Tyrpak, 60’), Isaac Promise (Valerii Saramutin, 34’), Xavier Baez; F: Kleber Giacomazzi, Andre Lima

Substitutions Not Used: Diego Restrepo, Thomas De Villardi, Callum Mallace, Clayton Adams

OKC Starting XI: GK: Cody Laurendi; D: Alvin Jones, Atiba Harris (c), Mike da Fonte, Mekeil Williams; M: Callum Ross (Je-Vaughn Watson, 86’), Rafael Garcia, Alexy Bosetti (Christian Eissele, 76’), F: Cordell Cato, Omar Gordon, Deshorn Brown

Substitutions Not Used: Bryan Byars, Kal Okot, Drew Beckie, Christian Ibeagha