Photo Credit: Vicente Cardenas

The San Antonio Scorpions entered their match on Saturday night with the hopes of jump-starting what had been a very slow start. After falling apart in their previous two matches of the fall season, the Scorpions desperately needed a win against one of the weakest teams in the league, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, who like the Scorpions had yet to get a win. Unfortunately the Scorpions suffered their third straight loss of the fall season with a 2-1 loss at Toyota Field in front of 6,105 fans.

The Scorpions started the game just as poorly as they started the season. After just two minutes of playing time, the Scorpions gave up a free kick and the set piece that followed was poorly defended. This allowed Strikers midfielder Mark Anderson the chance to find teammate Martin Nunez free on the back post for an easy tap-in to take an early 1-0 lead.

Just 10 minutes later, after consistent attacking pressure, the Strikers earned another free kick on the edge of the 18-yard box. This time Anderson punished the Scorpions himself – hitting the ball with flawless technique to get it over the wall and find the back of the net in the 15th minute that pushed their lead to two goals.

As the first half was coming to an end, the Scorpions managed to get a goal back when a deflected corner kick found its way to Scorpions’ forward Tomasz Zahorski’s feet inside the box and the recently signed Polish striker calmly knocked the ball past a beaten goalkeeper for the only Scorpions goal of the game.

After the game,Scorpions head coach Tim Hankinson expressed his frustration with the defending of set pieces.

“That’s just a very poor level of play, not being able to clear a ball… It’s disappointing giving goals away,” Hankinson said.

The team is now 0-3 to start off the season, and they’re sitting in last place by three points.

The Scorpions will have to beat the New York Cosmos, who recently returned to action in the North American Soccer league, in order to get their first victory on the road next Saturday night on Aug. 24 at 6 pm.