FC Tulsa return with win over El Paso, climb to fourth in West

Lamar Batista’s first-half stoppage-time goal gave FC Tulsa a 1-0 home win over El Paso Locomotive FC at ONEOK Field on July 18, 2026, and pushed the club up to fourth in the Western Conference standings. Jamie Webber set up the only score as Tulsa returned to league play after a long break and protected the lead the rest of the way.

The result was exactly the sort of response FC Tulsa had been looking for when it entered the match as a reset point for the second half of the 2026 season. The club’s shape held after Batista finished Webber’s assist before halftime, and the clean sheet suggested the pause did not leave Tulsa flat in a game that carried obvious playoff weight.

That mattered because the USL Championship’s 2026 schedule leaves little room for drift. The regular season runs 34 weeks, from March 7 through Oct. 24, with 375 games across the league, so a single home result can move a team several places in the table. Tulsa’s rise to fourth keeps it in the Western Conference playoff chase and gives the club a position it can build on rather than chase.

There is also recent history at ONEOK Field to show how quickly Tulsa can turn a strong home run into a postseason push. In 2025, FC Tulsa won the Western Conference title there with a 3-0 victory over New Mexico United before a sellout crowd, with Taylor Calheira scoring twice and Webber adding a goal and an assist. That run set a high bar for the club, and this latest win offered a reminder that Tulsa can still use its home field to create separation in a crowded West.

The question now is whether the layoff helped FC Tulsa regain its rhythm or simply delayed the next test. The win over El Paso gave the club a clean restart, a goal from Batista and three points that moved it into the top four, but the coming run of league matches will determine whether that position holds or becomes another short-lived climb.