McIntosh powers Oakland Roots to scoreless draw at Las Vegas Lights
Oakland Roots SC walked out of Cashman Field with a road point and the cleaner sheet, grinding out a 0-0 draw with Las Vegas Lights FC behind Kendall McIntosh’s five-save shutout. In a Western Conference race where one moment can flip a night, Oakland did the harder thing away from home: survive pressure, hold shape, and leave Las Vegas with nothing to show for all that territorial control.
McIntosh was the difference. The Oakland goalkeeper turned aside every opening Las Vegas created, and the five-save line tells the story of a match that asked him to keep answering until the final whistle. Oakland did not need a flurry of chances to win this game because it did not concede one, and that defensive discipline turned a scoreless draw into a valuable road result.
For Ryan Martin’s Roots, the point mattered because these are the matches that separate a playoff team from a middle-of-the-pack one in the USL Championship. Oakland did enough in the back half of the field to avoid the damage that usually comes when a road side spends long stretches under pressure. A clean sheet away from Oakland, California, is the kind of result that travels well when the table tightens.
The draw also fit into a season series that has already swung hard in both directions. On April 22 at Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Oakland beat Las Vegas 4-2, and Peter Wilson scored the first hat trick of the 2026 USL Championship season in that game. The rematch was almost the opposite picture: no goals, fewer openings, and a goalkeeper taking center stage instead of a forward.
McIntosh’s night carried an added layer of familiarity for the Roots. Oakland signed the Oakland-born keeper on Dec. 24, 2024, and this was the kind of performance that validates that move. With Frank Yallop on the Las Vegas bench and Martin guiding Oakland, the matchup brought veteran coaching and a clear contrast in style, but only one side solved the moment in front of goal. Las Vegas controlled enough of the attack to test McIntosh, then left Cashman Field with the same number of goals as it had at kickoff.