San Antonio FC suffered its first loss at home this season before a national TV audience as El Paso Locomotive FC pulled out a 1-0 win at Toyota Field on Wednesday night.

El Paso (3-9-2, 11 points) snapped San Antonio’s 14-game unbeaten streak at Toyota Field. The last team to beat San Antonio (4-4-5, 17 points) at Toyota Field before Wednesday night was Miami FC last July. El Paso’s three wins this season have come on the road.

“We deserved more from that game,” San Antonio coach Alen Marcina said. “The game can be cruel sometimes. We had nine players out going into the game with injury or international duty. The guys fought over the course of the game. Right now we make our best efforts to recover.”

El Paso’s goal came from a Brandan Craig free kick just outside the 18-yard box in the 65th minute. The free kick was awarded after it appeared San Antonio had won the ball cleanly, but the ref saw otherwise. While protesting the call, San Antonio defender Mitchell Taintor was shown a yellow card.

“My opinion (was) it wasn’t a foul, but refs have a hard job and have to make tough decisions,” Marcina said.

The visitors certainly could have had more goals as they outshot San Antonio 10-9 overall and 4-1 in shots on target.

San Antonio had two good chances to score an equalizer after the Craig goal. The first came in the 74th minute when Jorge Hernandez’s left-footed effort from the left side of the box hit the right upright and caromed back into play.

“I thought we played pretty good and created a good amount of chances,” Taintor said. “They got the goal which wasn’t a foul. When it’s not going your way, it’s not going your way. We’re obviously disappointed with the result. We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

San Antonio’s second good chance at a goal came 11 minutes later when Juan Agudelo’s header from the center of the box hit the crossbar.

“It’s always tough when you lose at home,” San Antonio defender Kendall Burks said. “You want to go into every game and get three points but we didn’t do that. Now we have to go on the road and get three points there.”

A San Antonio team that has not had the best of luck with injuries this season suffered another one early against El Paso when defender Carter Manley departed the game in the ninth minute. Giovanni Padilla came on to replace Manley.

“I would not have pegged Gio Padilla playing 81 minutes, but he did a great job locking up their winger,” Taintor said. “I’m excited to play with him again on Saturday.”

San Antonio had a bright spot on the night in the debut of new signing Jake LaCava. LaCava played the entire game just two days after joining the team.

“I was impressed with Jake tonight,” Marcina said. “He did well after being thrown in with just one training session. He had good moments tonight, but it was a tough night all around.”

The loss to El Paso also gave Locomotive the upper hand in the Copa Tejas run. San Antonio has won the last two Copa Tejas. El Paso last won it in 2021. The two teams meet again in El Paso on October 9.

San Antonio FC will hit the road on Saturday at Tulsa. It will be the start of a three-game road trip. SAFC will next play at home on June 29 against New Mexico.