Jeff Wendt

The Republic | azcentral.com

Brandon Swartzendruber will forever be linked to the infamous question of who scored the first goal in Arizona United SC history.

Swartzendruber received a pass from defender Matt Kassel, and Swartzendruber put it past Sacramento Republic FC goalkeeper Dominik Jakubek in the 38th minute for the first goal in the team's history.

And despite Swartzendruber's goal and a second yellow card to Sacramento Republic's Micky Daly in the 45th minute, Arizona United was unable to capitalize until the 85th minute, when Kassel crossed a ball into the box, and Joseph Toby headed it down to Jonathan Top, who put it into the back of the net giving Arizona United its first-ever win 2-1 over Sacramento Republic FC Saturday night at the Peoria Sports Complex in front of 3,014 fans.

"Its a special night, first win for Arizona United," Arizona United coach Michael Dellorusso said. "Like Kyle (owner Kyle Eng) said, six weeks ago he purchased the team. It's special for all these guys, special for the fans.

"At the end of the day, its another step for us. It's a process, and we're going through it. Obviously its a positive. Got better from last week and we'll take it from there."

Arizona United (1-1-0) found itself down again after a goal in the 27th miute by Sacramento Republic's Rodrigo Lopez, who put it under the arms of a diving Evan Newton for the 1-0 lead.

But Arizona United didn't look phased by goal, and they came back 11 minutes later with Swartzendruber's goal to tie it at 1-1.

"Obviously it was good for us to get that first goal," Swartzendruber said. "For me individually, it was nice, it took a little pressure of my shoulders. Its always good to score."

Play progressed when Daly received two yellow cards within two minutes time at the end of the first half, the second of which earned Arizona United a penalty kick at the end of the first half. Kassel stepped up to take the kick, but Jakubek dove to his left to stop the penalty kick and keep the game at 1-1.

From there, Arizona United struggled to keep the bulk of the possession, and looked like it was headed to a tie until Top's heroics late.

"We were able to get the ball out wide to Kassel and switched the point of attack pretty good," Top said. "Kassel put in a good ball to the back post and Joseph (Toby) got up for the header and I was like 'It went over me' and then I turned around and he heads it down and I'm just right place right time just reaction is swing at the ball and luckily it went in."

All in all, Dellorusso was happy with the preformance of his team Saturday.

"The effort was there today and I challenged these guys mentally," Dellorusso said. "And they brought it today, I was happy with that."