Sacramento Republic FC and Louisville City FC played to a 1-1 draw before a crowd of 9,880 fans at Heart Health Park on Saturday night as Cristian Parano’s opening goal for the hosts was cancelled out in the eighth minute of stoppage time by Amadou Dia’s late equalizer for LouCity.

The result left Louisville as one of two undefeated teams so far this Championship season with three wins and two draws, while Sacramento was left to rue dropped points at home again after an intense and entertaining contest before its home fans.

Here are three things we took away from the game.

1. REPUBLIC FC DEFENSE BENDS, UNLUCKY TO BREAK LATE

For a second consecutive home outing, Sacramento Republic FC let the potential of three points slip away at the death with goalkeeper Danny Vitiello likely disappointed he didn’t make cleaner contact on his attempt to punch clear, which led to the scramble that resulted in Amadou Dia’s equalizer. Prior to that, however, the hosts had looked rock solid in defense with Freddy Kleemann as the centerpiece, recording 13 clearances and winning 10 of 13 duels.

There were other excellent displays in the back line – coming on at halftime, 18-year-old center back Chibi Ukaegbu went 3 for 3 in tackles and 5 of 6 in duels while continuing to look composed in reading play – and the side overall went 13 of 17 in tackles and won 55 percent of duels to give LouCity few premium looks at goal. The ending may have been unfortunate, but Head Coach Neill Collins believed his side’s display boded well for what the team can achieve.

“There’s so much about all those games that have been really positive,” said Collins. “Tonight, it was a top game. I thought there was two good teams trying to win the game. Could have went both ways, but I thought we got the goal, we looked like we could have got the second goal, we never really looked under pressure, there wasn’t any opportunities once we went ahead and just a little bit of thought about misfortune looking a hopeful ball into our box ended up in the goal.

“I’m not going to beat the boys up for that, because I think if we keep doing the things that we did the first four games, we’re going to pick up a lot of points.”

2. LOUCITY PERSERVERES, BUT LACKED SHARPNESS

For a game that in terms of atmosphere and intensity throughout the 90 minutes lived up to the billing of a potential 2025 USL Championship Final preview, Louisville City just didn’t quite have the sharpness it needed consistently to break down Sacramento’s solid back line.

The numbers for both sides were reasonably balanced. Sacramento edged out LouCity narrowly with 77 final-third entries to 75 and had more passes in the final third when they got there by a 126 to 114 margin, but Sacramento’s sharpness in the attacking end saw it prove more threatening at times with Louisville completing only 52.6 percent of passes and recording 11 touches in the penalty area on the night.

“Overall, I was really, really happy with the bite – the passion that the group played with,” said LouCity Head Coach Danny Cruz. “I thought the mentality was there from start to finish, some really, really good moments. But we needed to be better in the final third.

“Our final pass wasn’t where it needed to be and not at the standard that we have. That was a little bit frustrating. And then to concede in the way that we do when it’s completely unnecessary … obviously, it’s a mistake that leads to the goal, but I didn’t feel that we deserved to lose the game.”

3. SEAN TOTSCH, HISTORY MAKER

Sean Totsch has achieved numerous accolades since he began his career in the USL Championship a decade ago at the Rochester Rhinos, and on Saturday night he continued to cement his place as one of the league’s all-time greats. In the 56th minute, the veteran center back saw the odometer click over to 22,225 minutes of action in the league’s regular season, taking him past former teammate Kenardo Forbes for the most in the league’s history.

Currently in his ninth season with LouCity, Totsch has been one of the key players in the side’s success, and himself is a three-time Championship title-winner among his other individual honors. As the league has continued to evolve over the 11 seasons he’s been in action, Totsch has been at the forefront and shows no signs of slowing down yet.

“It’s a lot of time, a lot of growth in the league from the early days back in 2015 when I first started,” said Totsch. “I started with going to an open tryout in Buffalo, New York, to get my first contract. … To see all the growth and to be able to be here, front row, seeing all of it has just been really, really cool.”