FC Tulsa bounces back with set-piece win over Monterey Bay FC

FC Tulsa did not need a flashy response after the weekend collapse in Charleston. It needed something repeatable, and at ONEOK Field on Wednesday night it found one: a 2-0 win over Monterey Bay FC built on set-piece sharpness, defensive discipline and cleaner game management. The result mattered because it did more than erase a bad loss. It showed Tulsa had a blueprint it can use again as the club opened a five-match league homestand.

Logan Dorsey put Tulsa in front in the 26th minute in his first start for the club after arriving on loan from the New England Revolution. Harvey St. Clair launched the long throw that Monterey Bay could not clear cleanly, and Dorsey finished the loose sequence to give Tulsa the early edge. The second goal came nine minutes into the second half, when Jamie Webber’s free kick found Lamar Batista for a close-range header and a 2-0 lead. It was Batista’s first goal of the 2026 regular season, and Webber’s assist extended his streak to three straight matches with an assist across all competitions.

After the match, Dorsey said he wanted to “give it all for the team” and do whatever role was needed, while Batista said Tulsa had “got back to the basics” and focused on the little things after the weekend loss. Head coach Luke Spencer praised the way his group stayed organized and stuck to the plan, a fair assessment for a team that had just conceded five goals at Charleston Battery for the first time under his watch.

Monterey Bay had the ball, controlling 64 percent of possession, but possession never turned into real danger. The visitors finished with only two shots on target, which told the story better than any territorial edge. Alex Tambakis handled the rest, preserving the shutout for Tulsa’s fourth regular-season clean sheet of 2026 and earning his 62nd USL Championship shutout, which tied Sacramento Republic FC goalkeeper Danny Vitiello for the league’s all-time record.

The win lifted Tulsa to 5-3-4 and 19 points, into the top three in the Western Conference, while Monterey Bay fell to 3-8-2 and 11 points. It also completed a season sweep for Tulsa and stretched Monterey Bay’s road league winless run to 19 matches. For a club trying to steady itself after a rough weekend, this was the right kind of answer: not accidental, not chaotic, and built on pieces that can travel.