A defensive battle in the first half resulted in very few chances and it looked like the teams would remain scoreless at the break until the 43rd minute. Chris Wehan’s corner kick to the far side of the penalty area was headed back into the mix by Justin Schmitd, and Devon Sandoval was there to redirect it into the goal and put the hosts ahead.

The hosts nearly took a two-goal lead just before the half, but Cody Laurendi was able to deny Kevaughn Frater’s close-range effort in the first minute of added time.

The second half was much more open, and the Greens almost equalized in the 47th minute. Brown outran the New Mexico defense to get on the end of Rafael Garcia’s long ball, but Cody Mizell was able to get down to make the save.

Laurendi had to come up big again the 59th minute. Frater got on the wrong side of the OKC defense and got off a contested shot that the OKC keeper was able to strongly knock down and hold.

Alexy Bosetti came inches from tying the game when he picked up a loose pass in the middle of the field in the 65th minute. Bosetti surged forward into the open space and drove a low shot from 25 yards that just missed the goal by inches.

New Mexico nearly doubled the lead again in the 69th minute, but again, Laurendi was there to intervene. Santi Moar found David Estrada open in the box with a ball over the top, but Laurendi made himself big and cut down the angle to block the shot and keep the deficit at one.

Just four minutes later, OKC found the equalizer. Gordon rose above the defense to flick on Kyle Hyland’s long throw from the left touchline and Brown ran onto the ball, took a touch and slotted his shot past Mizell and into the far post side netting.

Energy FC have a quick turnaround and will travel to Chukchansi Park to take on Fresno FC Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. CDT.

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

Scoring Summary:

NM: 1-0, Sandoval, 43’

OKC: 1-1, Brown, 73'

Disciplinary Summary:

OKC: Yellow Card (Bosetti, 50’)

NM: Yellow Card (Frater, 62’)

New Mexico United Starting XI: GK: Cody Mizell (c); D: Ethen Sampson, Sam Hamilton, Justin Schmidt, Austin Yearwood; M: Daniel Bruce (David Estrada, 65’), Juan Pablo Guzman (Ken Akamatsu, 89’), Chris Wehan, Santi Moar: F: Kevaughn Frater (Saalih Muhammad, 64’), Devon Sandoval

Substitutions Not Used: Ben Beaury, Manny Padilla, Ryan Williams, Tommy Madden

OKC Starting XI: GK: Cody Laurendi; D: Mike da Fonte, Christian Ibeagha, Atiba Harris (c), Kyle Hyland; M: Rafael Garcia, Alexy Bosetti (Amer Sasivarevic, 85’), Callum Ross; F: Cordell Cato, Omar Gordon, Deshorn Brown

Substitutions Not Used: Bryan Byars, Harrison Bouma, Kal Okot, Max Gunderson, Josh Garcia