By Troy Ewers

SACRAMENTO–The Oakland Roots played the Sacramento Republic FC in a regular season matchup at Heart Health Park in Sacramento. This game was their second time facing each other, the last time was in an U.S. Open Cup match and this time was a runaway 3-1 victory for Sacramento Republic FC.

The game started with an even possession battle for the first ten minutes, but in the 12th minute Sacramento scored off a beautiful inside the box goal by Keko Gontan and it was 1-0 Sac Republic. The attack for Sacramento got multiple chances throughout the first half, but Paul Blanchette stopped everything that got in his way.

The first half ended with Sacramento up 1-0. The second half didn’t get any better for Oakland as the 51st and 55th minute saw two goals that seamlessly passed the Roots backline.

The first one was off a rush from the midfield all the way to the outside the box for a goal by Russell Cicerone making it 2-0 Sacramento and the second one was from a pass all the way passed the backline that the Roots protested as offside, but no call was made and Juan Herrara scored a roller passed Blanchette. 3-0 Sacramento.

Even though Daniel Barbir got a one touch goal for it to be 3-1, Sacramento would hold off Oakland the whole second half and the game ended, 3-1 with Sacramento taking the game.

Next game for the Oakland Roots is against San Diego in Hayward and it’s gonna be a game that decides the momentum going into the last leg of the first half of the season.