DALLAS – Billy Forbes and Amer Didic scored first-half goals to lead San Antonio FC to a 3-1 victory against Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium on Saturday afternoon in its first game of the preseason. The USL Championship side capped its display with a late goal from a trialist to wrap up a good day of work for Head Coach Darren Powell’s squad.

“It’s always good to play against quality opposition like FC Dallas who presents you with challenges,” said Powell. “We saw that throughout today’s game, but our guys responded well. We managed to get two goals in the first half but were very patient in our approach overall.”

SAFC opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Forbes headed in a free kick from Rafa Castillo from the right side that caromed in off the left post after the Turks & Caicos international was left in space by his marker. Dallas had a chance to equalize just five minutes later from the penalty spot following an SAFC foul inside the box, but midfielder Pablo Aranguiz’s shot went just wide of goalkeeper Matt Cardone’s goal.

San Antonio FC doubled its off a second set piece just before the halftime break. A low delivery by Castillo was flicked on by midfielder Jack Barmby to find defender Amer Didic, who controlled well before taking a touch to create space in the right side of the penalty area before burying his finish to the far post for a 2-0 lead.

Dallas narrowed the gap six minutes into the second half after a mistake by SAFC in its own half resulted in forward Zdenek Ondrasek dribbling in on goal and finishing with a powerful shot to make it 2-1. San Antonio held firm to its lead for the remainder of the second half, however, and sealed the win in the 81st minute after midfielder Ethan Bryant found a trialist in on goal with a through-ball just inside the Dallas half. The trialist eluded a challenge and surged into the right side of the penalty area before producing a thumping finish to the top-right corner past goalkeeper Kyle Zobeck for the 3-1 result.