After overcoming an early two-goal deficit, FC Tucson couldn't hold off Las Vegas Lights FC on Wednesday night in a 4-2 loss in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Las Vegas, making its debut in the competition in its inaugural season an expansion club in the USL, got on the board early with a pair of goals from Carlos Alvarez and Marcelo Altatorre in the opening ten minutes.
However, FC Tucson, which defeated La Maquina FC at home 2-1 in the opening round of the Cup last week, came storming back. In the 39th minute, defender Amr Mokhtar found forward Jason Romero who needed just one touch to finish, slotting a shot from the edge of the six-yard box past Las Vegas goalkeeper Ricardo Ferrino to get the club on the board.
It was 2-1 at halftime but Tucson evened the game in the 48th minute, a sequence of build-up passes led to a curling cross from Romero from just outside the box. Midfielder Adrian Valenzuela came charging into the penalty area unmarked and buried a right-footed equalizer into the upper right corner of the goal.
But then in the 56th minute, Las Vegas forward Samuel Ochoa got his head on the end of a cross in the Tucson box, directing the ball past goalkeeper Andrue Cases to put Lights FC back in front. Six minutes later, Ochoa scored again to reestablish Las Vegas' two-goal lead in the 66th minute.
It's the third straight year that FC Tucson's U.S. Open Cup run ends in the second round of competition.
