SEASIDE, Calif. – Mayele Malango earned Monterey Bay FC a 1-1 draw against Las Vegas Lights FC after Patrick Leal had put the visitors ahead early at Cardinale Stadium in the final regular season game of the campaign for both clubs.

The Lights took the lead in just the third minute as Leal put home a first-time finish from a low cross by Vaughn Covil from the right after Johnny Rodriguez’s initial shot for the visitors had been parried away by Monterey Bay’s Nico Campuzano. Las Vegas almost doubled its lead 16 minutes later when Elias Gärtig’s header hit the crossbar off a corner, but Monterey Bay hit back through Malango shortly before the half-hour mark as he broke forward onto a pass by Anton Søjberg and shot low into the bottom-right corner.

Søjberg then had the opportunity to put the hosts ahead 10 minutes into the second half after Wesley Fonguck was brought down in the penalty area, but the Dane pulled his penalty kick wide of the right post. Monterey Bay had one final late chance to take victory with a minute to go when Sami Guediri’s low effort from the top of the penalty area was turned away by Carver Miller, leaving the two sides even to wrap up the season.

Takeaways

Monterey Bay FC: The hosts recovered from a slow start to produce a good second-half performance but were unable to claim all three points thanks to Anton Søjberg’s missed penalty, which summed up the way the season has gone at Cardinale Stadium.

Las Vegas Lights FC: The Lights opened the game brightly but were unable to maintain their momentum, failing to record a shot on target in the second half as they came away with a draw to end the year.

Key moment

Anton Søjberg’s opportunity from the penalty spot could have given Monterey Bay a second-half lead but his effort slid wide of the right post to leave the hosts winless in their final three games of the season.

Key stat

Las Vegas Lights FC’s Elias Gärtig went the full 90 minutes becoming the first player in Lights history to play every minute of a regular season campaign this year.

USLChampionship.com Player of the Match

Tommy McNamara, Las Vegas Lights FC – The veteran midfielder completed 73 of 84 passes and made 11 recoveries while winning 5 of 6 tackles and 7 of 11 ground duels in a solid all-around display.

Scoring Summary
LV – Patrick Leal (Vaughn Covil) 3’
MB – Mayele Malango (Anton Søjberg) 28’