Tally includes a debut goal for Navarro and two Goal of the Season contenders
Papillion, Nebr. (March 29, 2025) – Union Omaha continued their reign over Tormenta with a 3-1 win down in Statesboro.
The victory featured two potential Goal of the Week contenders, an own goal on a player’s debut, and a late red card for the home side, which all qualifies this as a typical fixture between the two clubs.
“The guys executed our plan perfectly. I think we were pretty dominant with and without the ball,” said Head Coach Dominic Casciato afterward.
On a night with three players making their USL League One debut for the Owls, it took a hot minute for the team to bed in against a Tormenta side that’s quite revamped as well. The Ibises’ high press put the Owls under siege from the beginning, forcing the visitors to gel quickly or put Cole Jensen in peril behind them. On the other end, Yaniv Bazini also struck a shot just wide around 30 seconds in, leading to the first impression that this could be another long night for Omaha.
It was, but in quite the productive way.
The scoring nearly opened in the 15th minute when Aarón Gómez found himself free in front of net with an easy strike, but he got to that spot by moseying back from an offside position, so the scoreline remained untouched for another quarter of an hour.
Union Omaha would finally get on the board off a corner kick, with Charlie Ostrem’s deep header into the box finding one of the neophyte Owls in Sergio Ors Navarro. His own header would trickle just across the line, despite Austin Pack’s desperate attempt to claw it back, making for a debut to remember for the Spaniard Navarro.
Unfortunately, on Tormenta’s only corner kick of the mach just minutes later, their delivery would ricochet off Samuel Owusu and into his own net, knotting the score at the break.
That halftime break allowed Union Omaha to recalibrate, though, and once they retook the lead, it would be smooth sailing against Tormenta.
The Owls busted the match open right as the clock hit 55 minutes. Charlie Ostrem found enough space on the left flank to fire in a beautifully whipped cross, and meeting it at the far corner of the six-yard box was Dion Acoff ghosting in from the opposite wing. Acoff could not have met the ball any cleaner, stroking a stunning volley straight past Pack.
If that wasn’t enough, not ten minutes later came one of the moves of the season, and one that Coach Dom called a thing of beauty. Starting with Anderson Holt cleaning up a long ball by Tormenta, the Owls began a 12-pass, 21-touch move from back to front, getting seven players involved in a fluid buildup that ran rings around the Ibises. It ended up with the ball laid off to Max Schneider just outside the box, and his first-time effort curled gently into the far corner for a team goal that could make any manager shed a tear.
It was all academic from there, with South Georgia only managing a single shot in the second half. It likely didn’t help that Omaha racked up an astonishing 29 fouls, breaking up the tempo of the match throughout. Once stoppage time began looming, the final nail in the coffin arrived for the home team in the form of a red card for Anatolie Prepelita after a tussle with Schneider. Omaha would leave as 3-1 victors, with the wind at their backs heading into a cup fixture just days later.
Said Coach Dom, “I’m delighted for the guys. There’s still a lot of room to grow for us, I think we’re definitely still a work in progress, and we’re going to get better from here, but I’m proud of the guys.”
Union Omaha takes a jaunt over to Des Moines next for a U.S. Open Cup showdown with the Menace on Wednesday, April 2nd at 7:30 PM. After that, it’s another midweek matchup, this time in the league at Richmond Kickers on Wednesday, April 9th at 6:00 PM.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 and 2024 USL League One Champions and three-time USL League One Players’ Shield Winner, is the only professional soccer team in the state of Nebraska. USL League One is a United States Soccer Federation-sanctioned professional men’s soccer league that occupies the third tier of American soccer, below USL Championship (tier two) and Major League Soccer (tier one). Union Omaha plays its home matches at Werner Park in Sarpy County, also home to the Omaha Storm Chasers of Minor League Baseball. The team is led by General Manager of Business Operations Alexis Boulos in the front office and Head Coach Dominic Casciato on the field.
