FC Wichita takes down Tulsa

For a six-minute stretch in the second half on Saturday against the Tulsa Athletics, it was easy to forget that FC Wichita was playing in its inaugural season.

Matt Clare was ravaging a Tulsa defense that was unorganized and disconnected. Shadow Sebele seemed faster than anyone else on the field. Iyassu Bekele was in on two of the team’s three goals during the short span which carried FC Wichita to a 4-2 win.

“It comes all the way from the top,” Clare said. “We have a structure and a way we go about the games, and the unity just comes with that.”

Sebele put the team on board first, with a 25-yard free-kick in the 18th minute to go to halftime with a 1-0 lead. After a slow start to the second half, play ramped up until the 71st minute, when Clare scored on a breakaway. After fighting off a defender and slipping past the keeper, Clare notched his team-high seventh goal of the season.

“We were fortunate enough to score a goal early, and that certainly opens up the field, because now the other team has to chase the game,” FC Wichita coach Larry Inlow said. “When they chase the game, that opens up gaps, and then we put (Clare) in his spot to find those gaps, and of course he sniffs those out real easy, and punishes them.”

FC Wichita, already up 2-0, broke the game open when Iyassu Bekele put in a goal three minutes later. Clare stole the ball in the midfield, which opened up the center defenders and allowed Bekele to race around the right side. Clare chipped a feed over the last defender’s head, and Bekele did the rest.

Soon after, Bekele made a long run into the left side of the box before chipping it into the middle for Austin Clifton, who subbed in for Clare just a few minutes earlier. Clifton blasted it past the mispositioned Tulsa keeper.

“This is the first time (Bekele) showed up, in seven games,” Clare said. “Now he’s got seven more games to see what he can do, and he showed a glimpse of that tonight. Once he gets going, you can’t stop him.”

The goal and assist accounted for Bekele’s first points of the season, despite playing in all seven games.

“I’ve been trying hard to get into the rhythm of this team,” Bekele said. “We’ve gelled so nice, but I was just trying to fit in there somewhere. It worked today.”

FC Wichita notched its second straight win, and fourth win in five games to move itself into second in the NSPL South Central Conference. Now, with momentum on its side, FC Wichita has undefeated Corinthians FC coming into town for the third game of a four-game homestand.

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 11:07 PM with the headline "FC Wichita takes down Tulsa."