TULSA, Okla. - With captain Sammy Ochoa back in the lineup, Tulsa Roughnecks FC entered tonight’s matchup against the Portland Timbers 2 looking to take advantage of a struggling opponent and tally a goal for the first time in three games.

As it turned out, another night of offensive struggles left the side disappointed after a third defeat in the past four games, as Portland took a 2-0 victory for its second win at ONEOK Field in as many visits.

“We tried to put our focus on having a little bit more offensive punch,” said Roughnecks Coach David Irving. “To tell you the truth, I thought that in the first half we played well, and that they had two soft goals, really. They put them away, but rebound that goes straight to them and it goes in. That’s where the season’s been going.”

The Roughnecks looked poised to potentially break their recent struggles in the 19th minute when Taylor Morgan was one-one-one with Portland’s goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh. With Morgan charging on goal, McIntosh left his penalty area to challenge the Tulsa forward. McIntosh missed the ball and scythed down Morgan near the edge of the box.

As referee Jon Freemon ran to the site of the foul, many in attendance expected to see a red card and a penalty awarded to the Roughnecks. Neither happened. Freemon, opted to show the Timbers goalkeeper a yellow card, while ruling that the foul occurred outside the area, awarding a free kick to Tulsa.

“I thought it was a red card,” said Irving. “I thought it was in the box. Neither. That’s football. You can’t talk about the referees. That is part and parcel of the game. He made a decision and you’ve got to live with it.”

The resulting free kick by Tulsa’s Kaleem hit the Timbers wall and failed to threaten the goal.

The foul brought a vigorous pace to a game that distinctly lacked energy. It also proved to be the turning point in the game.

Following the free kick, both teams played more energetically and began pressing each other’s backline. Portland’s speed proved difficult for the Roughnecks defense to handle early on, and a poor clearance by the Tulsa defense presented a golden opportunity for Kharlton Belmar to score at the edge of the 18-yard box, which he did with aplomb as he sent a first-time finish past Mangels into the right corner of the goal.

The Timbers 2 struck in similar fashion minutes later thanks to another poor Roughnecks defensive clearance. This time Portland’s Andre Lewis zeroed in on the loose ball and sent a rocket past Mangels into the top-right corner of the net to give Portland a 2-0 lead.

The two goals, following the Roughnecks failure to capitalize on McIntosh’s foul, proved too much for Tulsa to overcome. Despite focusing on the lack of offensive production in the run up to tonight’s game, the lack of a final product is something that has both fans and members of the club feeling dejected.

“It’s just one of those things at the moment,” Irving said. “It’s disappointing. You can’t stop people from having shots on goal, but we’ve got to be a little tougher in the tackle. Every goal that we’ve let in so far has been outside the box. That isn’t so good.

“The guys are disappointed.  I am very disappointed for our fans. They show up, and we’re not punching our weight as you might say, all of us.”

Up next for Tulsa is a daunting four-game road trip that starts with a tough match next weekend against San Antonio FC.  Heading into the game in Texas, Irving acknowledged that the club has to tighten its focus to begin getting results.

“Obviously, we’ve got to be confident,” he said. “We’ve got four games on the road. There’s no easy games, but on the road’s more difficult. We’ve got San Antonio, Vancouver, Seattle, and Swope. Hey, it’s not easy. We know what’s ahead of us. We’ve just got to do what we’re doing and keep going.”

Ochoa offered a similar opinion.

“We’ve just got to go out there and play like we did in St. Louis,” he said of last week’s 0-0 draw against Saint Louis FC. “I think in St. Louis the team did well. I think we’ve just got to go out there and grind it out. None of these games are easy, and these away games are not going to be easy. We’ve just got to get out there and do our best, try to make the least amount of mistakes as possible, and capitalize on the chances we have.”