Sacramento Republic looks sharp but can’t take a win from division-leading Phoenix

Scoreless ties are never exciting, but Sacramento Republic has to be reasonably pleased after going to division-leading Phoenix and pulling out a point Saturday night.

Phoenix, which entered the game with no losses in its last 11 games, looked the lesser team in the second half, as Sacramento pelted the Rising’s net with eight shots on goal.

“I was really, really pleased but also disappointed,” Sacramento coach Mark Briggs said. “Really pleased with the collective performance of the group. I thought at times we dominated and created a lot of opportunities. Not many teams come into Phoenix and do that. From that perspective, very pleasing, and that also explains why I’m disappointed, because to play the way we did, I felt we should have took three points out of the game.”

The Quails midfielders controlled the flow of the game, but forward Cam Iwasa had another big game up top to power the Sacramento offense. Iwasa had five shots in the second half, four of them on target. Phoenix was forced to make nine saves while Sacramento’s Tomas Gomez needed just two stops to preserve the shutout for the Republic.

Midfielder Mario Penagos said his Republic teammates were locked in on Phoenix, which leads the Pacific Division by nine points.

“Going into the match, we knew that they were the best team in the league,” Penagos said. “So we knew that we had to play our best and make sure everybody was focused and locked in to be able to get a result. And I think that everyone did that and it showed everybody was working hard for each other. And we, we didn’t win, but we had some good chances that could have easily been goals so I think, overall, people are happy with the performance.”

Sacramento has now won or tied in its last seven games to pull into fifth place in the standings. Fourth-place San Diego will be in Sacramento for a game at 8 p.m. Saturday night.