In their inagural meeting, Red Bull New York came away victorious with a 4-1 victory over San Diego FC on Saturday at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Goals from Julian Hall, Devin Padelford, Jorge Ruvalcaba and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting powered RBNY to the three points.
Ethan Horvath turned away a penalty attempt on top of four saves on the night.
"We're coming into form at the right time, and before this game we said we had seven finals, one down," Horvath said. "It was a great performance today from the team."
New York opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Ronald Donkor drove at the backline and played a ball through down the right side of the box to Ruvalcaba who played a one-time cross into the six-yard box that was put into the back of the net by Hall.
Hall scored his 11th goal of the season and his 14th across all competitions.
The Manhattan, N.Y. native’s 16 goal contributions this season tie Ricardo Pepi for fifth place in most goal contributions in a regular season by a teenager. The forward has scored a goal in five of his last six appearances between club and country in 308 minutes played.
The Red Bulls doubled their lead in the 20th minute when Cade Cowell whipped in a corner kick into the box to Padelford who headed the ball into the bottom right corner.
Padelford scored his first career goal with New York and third of his MLS career. The Maplewood, MN native is the first defender to score for the Red Bulls this season.
New York scored a third in the 27th minute. Adri Mehmeti played a ball across the top of the box to Donkor who played a ball through to the endline to Ruvalcaba who turned and fired a tight angle shot into the top left corner.
Ruvalcaba scored his eighth goal of the season and provided his first career MLS assist.
The winger recorded his third multi-goal contribution match of the season. He previously did so scoring two goals each against Sporting Kansas City on May 23 and D.C. United on April 22.
New York scored a fourth goal in the third minute of second half stoppage time. Matthew Dos Santos chipped a ball towards the box to Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting who turned, took a touch past the defender and placed a right footed shot into the bottom left corner.Â
Choupo-Moting scored his fourth goal of the season and the 21st of his MLS career.
The forward scored his second goal of the season in the 90th minute or later. Dos Santos provided his second career MLS assist.
Tim Parker made his 300th MLS appearance, subbing into the match in the 61st minute.
"I think moving along from team to team, meeting a lot of great players, and playing with a lot of great friends and teammates," Parker said. "I think it's really cool. Advice-wise, I would tell them just enjoy it because it does go by fast."
New York will face off against Atlantic Cup rivals D.C. United on Wednesday, October 14 at Audi Field.
"We come in Monday already prepared for D.C.," Parker said. "We'll probably look back on the stuff we did well here, but I think the message is we need to continue the momentum forward, and going into D.C. We have nothing to be afraid of. It's all in our hands and all in our control."
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET with coverage on Apple TV in English and Spanish, and Red Bulls Radio in English via the Red Bull New York app and RedBullNewYork.com.
