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Gameday Report: Seijas’ late strike earns Rising FC victory against Miami FC

By USLChampionship.com Staff, 04/24/22, 12:33AM EDT

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Long-range blast with two minutes remaining sends host to 2-1 victory, overcoming deficit at Wild Horse Pass

PHOENIX – Luis Seijas scored an outstanding late winner in the 88th minute as Phoenix Rising FC took a 2-1 victory against Miami FC on Saturday night at Wild Horse Pass, coming back from conceding first to the visitors in a high-profile interconference matchup.

Miami opened brightly and created the first good look of the game in the 10th minute when Josh Perez played Romeo Parkes into the right side of the penalty area, only for Phoenix’s Ben Lundt to come off his line quickly to smother the chance behind for a corner kick. Rising FC then thought it had taken the lead 12 minutes later when Aodhan Quinn’s free kick was flicked home by Claudio Repetto, but the Italian forward was ruled offside to deny the goal. Instead, it was the visitors that broke the deadlock in the 27th minute when Pierre Da Silva curled a back-post cross from the left that picked out Perez for a diving header just inside the right corner of the net.

Rising FC hit back in the final minute of the half, however, as after Miami goalkeeper Connor Sparrow got down well to deny a shot by Joey Calistri, Repetto quickly gathered the rebound and turned it back into the six-yard area from the left byline where Kevon Lambert stretched to turn the ball home into the right corner. Miami had a chance to regain the lead five minutes into the second half when a broken play after a cross from the left came to Florian Valot, only for Lundt to make a big save from close range.

The hosts progressively began to up the pressure as the second half continued and Calistri had a header toward the left corner turned wide by Sparrow in the 57th minute before Greg Hurst had a shot smothered after a good piece of interplay with Aodhan Quinn to set up a shot. The pressure for the hosts paid off with two minutes to go as after a corner kick from the right, the ball was half-cleared to Seijas, who controlled and fired a shot from 30 yards from the left channel that flew just past Sparrow and in off the crossbar. Miami tried to find a late response, and Speedy Williams fired a long-range effort that flew just over the crossbar, but Rising FC held firm to extend its winning streak to six games in all competitions as it continued to rise the Western Conference standings.

USLChampionship.com Player of the Match

Kevon Lambert, Phoenix Rising FC – Lambert scored the opening goal for the hosts and completed 65 of 73 passes, won 5 of 6 aerial duels and recorded four interceptions and 10 recoveries defensively in the win.

Scoring Summary
MIA
– Josh Perez (Pierre Da Silva) 26’
PHX – Kevon Lambert (Claudio Repetto) 45’
PHX – Luis Seijas 88’

Full Box Score

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