Rio Grande Valley FC couldn’t protect its lead, though, and had to settle for a tie that left its unbeaten streak at five games.

“We had it in the bag,” Escalante said through a translator, teammate Arturo Sanchez. “It feels more like a loss than a tie.”

The tie might have felt more like a win for St. Louis FC, which gradually took control of the game and dominated its latter stages. The tying goal alone was enough to exhilarate the packed crowd and even the goal-scorer himself.

Herrera, a 24-year-old forward from El Salvidor, called it the best goal he’s scored. He took a pass from Richard Dixon and ripped a left-footed shot from the top of the box on the right side, ringing it off the upper part of the left post.

“I couldn’t have hit it better than that,” Herrera said. “It went in a spot that the goalie couldn’t get to it.”

St. Louis FC nearly took the lead a few times after that. James Musa’s running header off a Jordan Roberts cross went off the fingertips of Toros goalie Callum Irving and just wide of the left post, and Chad Bond’s free kick from just outside the box went just over the crossbar.