PHOENIX – With 17 goals over its previous five games, the attacking weaponry at Phoenix Rising FC’s disposal had been on full display.

“I think if you watch our game, we have so many options,” said Rising FC playmaker Solomon Asante on Wednesday night. “We are moving a lot, we are doing so many things on the pitch. So sometimes when it gets to the attacking third, we have so many options, so you have to try to give first, and if that's not an option, then you shoot.”

As Rising FC found making inroads on Rio Grande Valley FC’s defense on Wednesday night difficult, though, there were few people it could have hoped its biggest chance of the game to fall to than Asante. The Ghanaian’s 61st-minute goal proved the difference in a 1-0 victory against the Toros in front of a crowd of 5,307 fans at the Phoenix Rising Soccer Complex that proved as hard-fought as the hosts were expecting.

“RGV is a good defensive team,” said Rising FC Head Coach Rick Schantz. “They kept us to zero when we were there. Tonight, they crowded the middle of the field. So, we had to take advantage of wide areas. We got a little impatient, I thought, at the end of the first half and the start of the second half. I was upset with the guys. We had a good game plan, we had some good ideas. We were creating chances, we just weren't getting on the end of crosses.”

In the end it was one of those crosses that made the difference as the Toros’ only major misstep in their defensive third on the night cost them dearly. A delivery from the left side by Billy Forbes bounced once before an RGVFC defender mistimed his effort to clear, which allowed the ball to reach Asante at the far post. His finish into the roof of the net was as clinical as you’d expect from Rising FC’s co-leading scorer as he moved level with teammate Chris Cortez on his 13th goal of the regular season.

“Sometimes, if we are not scoring, you don't know what to do, you're frustrated,” said Asante, whose side had sent four shots off target and had another four blocked before his finish, which stood as the side’s first shot on goal of the night. “You want to push, and if you don't take them, things will not go away for you. I was telling the team to calm down, to relax. It's soccer. Everything can happen. We score just in a second, not a minute, in a second. So, we should take our time. The goal will come.”

Asante’s goal stood as the winner thanks to Phoenix’s fourth consecutive shutout as Carl Woszczynski made a five-save performance that included a crucial 89th-minute stop on RGVFC’s Carlos Small as his backline hesitated to react to a through-ball into the penalty area that the Panamanian seized upon, only to be denied by the big Rising FC goalkeeper. Phoenix also got a key goal-line clearance from LAFC loanee Tristan Blackmon early in the second half when the game was still scoreless to keep the Toros off the board.

“Carl [Wozczynski] was fantastic,” said Schantz. “He made a great save at the end, and Tristan [Blackmon] flew across the goal line. They should've scored two goals. We'll definitely put that on the board and video. We can't play this well and give away two easy chances like that. We still have some room to work.”

Phoenix won’t have much time to look back as it heads to another in-form side in San Antonio FC on Saturday night at Toyota Field (8:30 p.m. ET | Match Center | ESPN+) for one of this weekend’s marquee matchups in the Western Conference. But with the side now level on points with Real Monarchs SLC at the top of the standings, trailing on the total wins tiebreaker, Phoenix is looking primed to make it a fight to the finish with the Monarchs for top spot and homefield advantage in at least the Western Conference bracket of the USL Cup Playoffs next month.

“We set a goal two weeks ago, and it was to end at a certain number of points,” said Schantz. “I said the fastest to do that is obviously to win six or seven in a row. The guys have a mission right now, and you can see it. You can see their determination, you can see their focus. We'll end up wherever we end up. I told ownership that I promised a home playoff game, so it better be in the top four.”