By Tyler Vaughn,

Neither side was able to create many chances in the opening quarter of an hour until Iwasa found a yard of space in the 16th minute and got off a shot from outside the penalty area that skipped past Bryan Byars.

Four minutes later, Byars fouled Stefano Bonomo in the area and the referee didn’t hesitate before pointing to the spot. Up stepped Iwasa, who calmly dispatched the penalty in the 22nd minute.

To make matters worse, Nicolas Taravel suffered an injury in the buildup to the penalty and had to be replaced by Christian Ibeagha.

In the 27th minute, Iwasa scored his third goal after volleying home off a cross from Mitchell Taintor.

The Greens looked to get right back into things, when Rafael Garcia won the ball, drove into the Sacramento penalty area and fired a low strike past Josh Cohen to cut the deficit to two just two minutes later.

Deshorn Brown nearly made it a one-goal game in the 37th minute, after Cordell Cato’s pass split two defenders, but the striker pulled the shot from close range wide.

The hosts regained the three-goal advantage in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Sam Werner’s attempt from well outside the penalty area deflected off Mekeil Williams and wrong-footed Byars, who had no chance to make the save.

Energy FC had good opportunities to get back in the game in the second half. In the 52nd minute, an Alexy Bosetti free kick found Callum Ross all alone at the back post, but the volley missed the top corner by inches.

Just four minutes later, Bosetti was again the provider, as his outswinging corner kick was met by the head of Ibeagha, but the defender didn’t catch it cleanly and Josh Cohen was able to make the save.

Second-half substitute Marco Bustos linked up well with Omar Gordon before his curling effort drifted just wide of the post in the 82nd minute.

The Greens will stay out west to face Reno 1868 FC next Saturday, March 30 at 8:00 p.m. CDT.

This Post-Match Recap is presented by Southern Nazarene University. Learn more about SNU’s MASMA program here.