ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rowdies remained unbeaten on the season after battling to a 2-2 draw with Oakland Roots SC on Saturday evening at Al Lang Stadium.
“We knew (Oakland) were going to be a good side, and they proved that tonight,” said Rowdies Head Coach Dominic Casciato. “I think if we were switched on in a few little moments, then we leave here with three points without being at our best, but I think there’s a lot of lessons to learn from it.”
Tampa Bay struck the first blow only three minutes into the contest, as midfielder Marco Micaletto swooped in to pounce on a rebound in the box after Oakland goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh saved an initial long-range shot from Russell Cicerone. The opening goal was Micaletto’s tally on the season so far.
“Always nice to start off like that,” said Micaletto. “I just distinctly remember Russell coming inside and shooting. You’re always told to follow it up, so I was glad to be in the right place at the right time.”
The visitors got back on level terms only a few minutes later through an unfortunate own goal. A dangerous cross sent in from the left edge of the box forced Rowdies Wingback Charlie Ostrem to make a clearance that wound up in the back of his own net.
Cicerone answered for the Rowdies seconds before the halftime whistle. Wingback Dion Acoff provided the assist with a deft cross delivered from the endline that fell on a platter for Cicerone to smash past McIntosh. The tally marked Cicerone’s 100th career goal contribution in the USL Championship regular season.
Oakland found another equalizer just four minutes into the second half, though. After a Rowdies set piece the attacking half was nullified, the visitors quickly moved the ball up the field to find attacker Wolfgang Prentice, who made the most of the opportunity by lifting the ball over Jahmali Waite and into the net as the Rowdies goalkeeper as he rushed off his line.
The Rowdies ended the night with five total shots on target, but they could not find their way to a third goal to come away with the victory.
“It would have been nice to have another goal,” said Casciato. “If I’m honest, I don’t think we quite did enough to create enough big chances to say we definitely should have won the game. I think our defending has been excellent. We let ourselves down in two moments. We’ll learn from that and get better for sure.”
With the draw, the Rowdies are unbeaten through their first five matches and stand with El Paso Locomotive FC as one of just two teams that has yet to lose a match so far in 2026.
“It just feels like we’ve dropped two points, and I think that’s more to the standard that we try to hold ourselves to,” said Micaletto. “We’re at home and we want to take a lot of pride in this being our fortress… A group that wants to go on and achieve things that we want to achieve, (tonight’s result) doesn’t fly. But it’s such a long year. You can’t get caught up in the highs and lows. When we win four games in a row, it doesn’t mean we’re amazing, and when we drop points, it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden we’re terrible, right? You’ve got to keep that steady mindset, understand why we didn’t win tonight and go and correct it ahead of next Saturday’s game.”
Next up, the Rowdies travel to face Eastern Conference rivals, the Charleston Battery at Patriots Point Soccer Complex on Saturday, April 18. The matchup will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network, with kickoff set for 3 p.m. ET.
Scoring Summary
TBR – Micaletto, 3’
OAK – Ostrem (Own Goal), 12’
TBR – Cicerone (Acoff), 45+2’
OAK – Prentice (Bettache), 49’
Caution Summary
TBR – Schneider Yellow Card), 89’
Stats Summary TBR / OAK
Shots: 12 / 9
Shots on Goal: 5 / 2
Saves: 1 / 3
Corner Kicks: 7 / 1
Fouls Conceded: 10 / 9
Offside: 2 / 1
Possession: 50.8 / 49.2
Lineups
TBR: Waite, Acoff (Dolabella, 68’), Schaefer, Dossantos, Ostrem, Schneider, Hilton (Conway, 57’), Cruz, Micaletto (Perez, 68’), Cicerone, Myers (Oliveira, 76’)
TBR Bench: Pack, Leerman, Rodriguez, Tita, Dolabella, Oliveira, Perez, Conway, Henderlong
OAK: McIntosh, Gibson (Hackshaw, 59’), Edwards, Garcia Marcos, Bravo (de Vicente, 76’), Jacquesson (Valot, 80’), Byaruhanga, McCabe, Prentice (Kiil, 75’), Bettache (Trejo, 75’), Wilson
OAK Bench: Caracheo Luna Jr., De Vicente, Elmasnaouy, Hackshaw, Kiil, Trejo, Valot
