Gómez’s brace and Jérôme’s thunderbolt rock the house on Students & Educators Day
Papillion, Nebr. (October 2, 2024) – Thousands of students at Werner Park may have ducked class for an afternoon, but they still got an education on the beautiful game as Union Omaha schooled Spokane Velocity to the tune of a 4-0 scoreline.
This marked the seventh time in all competitions that the Owls have put up four or more goals in a match; the next closest teams are at three of these attacking outbursts. This one was powered by dad energy as well, with Aarón Gómez securing a brace in front of his son, on the pitch as a ball kid.
“Good win today in front of a lot of members of the local community! It was great to have so many kids out at the game,” said Head Coach Dominic Casciato.
As one might expect from a match with a noon kickoff (10am in Spokane’s neck of the woods!), the match had a bit of a chaotic start. Maybe the most notable highlight early on came when the visitors’ Andre Lewis seemingly tried to shoot on his own net with the outside of his boot, forcing his goalkeeper to head the ball clear.
After Spokane’s initial run of possession, Omaha spent more time setting up in Spokane’s half, with Velocity hoping to hit on the break. Without star midfielder Luis Gil, however, their attack was visibly blunted.
Just as it looked like the match would go into the break without anything to give the legions of onlooking kids something to cheer about (besides Hoot the Owl making an appearance), a 43rd minute goal sparked the students to life. A long ball into the box from Mechack Jérôme started the move, and the ball was laid off to Joe Gallardo to weave through traffic and test goalkeeper Brooks Thompson. While he made the stop, Gómez was first to react and punch it home for the halftime lead.
“I’m really pleased with Aarón Gómez,” said Coach Dom. “I think his workrate deserves goals, and today he was excellent [in getting two goals].”
Only five minutes later, Gómez would notch his brace. A simple little throw-in deep in Spokane territory became a one-two between Charlie Ostrem and Nortei Nortey. Ostrem made a beautiful whipped cross first-time to find Gómez in front of everyone, and he nodded it past Thompson at the near post before he could react.
After embracing his teammates, they made their way over to his son, right beside the goal as a ball kid for the match. Following a group hug, Gómez showed off a handshake routine with his son thankfully captured by the broadcast.
When asked about the handshake after the match, Gómez laughed. “It took a couple years,” he said of the process of nailing down that shake.
It just about took a couple minutes for the Owls to find their third goal of the day. Zeiko Lewis found Dion Acoff streaking down the right flank as he always does, with a through ball sending Acoff to the byline to chip in a cross. In strikingly similar fashion to his first goal for the club, Charlie Ostrem was there after the goalkeeper parried the cross away to net it.
As though that wasn’t enough for all the kids behind that goal, we saw the strike of the day from the most unexpected source. When Spokane only half-cleared a corner kick routine, the ball fell to veteran center back Mechack Jérôme. After taking it down, he simply put his leg through it. That was more than enough to see the ball threaten to rip through the netting before anyone could blink. Talk about velocity.
An 11-minute salvo of three goals was enough to put the game securely to bed, though not before Rashid Nuhu was called into action with an incredible pair of saves just minutes after that, the second save coming off a point-blank header. Only then, though, was the chaos tuned down. As the kids filed out to return to school, the match grew more and more sedate, and it wasn’t long before the final whistle officially put Union Omaha six points clear atop the league.
Even without key components like Pedro Dolabella and Steevan Dos Santos, Los Búhos put Spokane under siege with 17 shots, eight of them on target.
Not a bad reason to duck school for an afternoon, it turned out.
Union Omaha have no time to bask in this win, however. A journey to Richmond awaits them for a match this Saturday, October 5th. A win there could put them in prime clinching position when they return home to Werner Park on October 12th against Lexington SC, for Hispanic Heritage Night.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 USL League One Champion and 2023 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.
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