The home team rode into Saturday night’s match at Phoenix Rising Stadium at Wild Horse Pass against Miami FC atop a five-game winning streak, which included a mid-week victory against New Mexico United in the U.S Open Cup to advance to the fourth round.

Rising’s hot streak only improved on their home pitch Saturday night, taking a 2-1 victory over Miami FC with a late minute, game-winning goal from midfielder Luis Manuel Seija.

Seijas received a yellow card earlier in the game, but won it for Rising with a corner kick in the 88th minute to extend the team’s win streak to six.

Seijas commented about the goal after the game.

“I had an awful game. We didn’t play the way we had the past few games. We struggled a bit. We were not synchronized in the first half. We suffered a bit but sometimes you need to have something different to overcome adversity – this team has it. I told Rick [Schantz] it was all him because he kept me on the field,” Seijas said of his late-game heroics, according to Phoenix Rising FC press release.

Most of the game was an intense stalemate between the two teams. With Rising having possession for 49% of the game as opposed to Miami’s 51%. In fact, most of the end game statistics were very similar between the two teams; both sharing a similar number of fouls, as well as shots on target. The only big difference was Rising doubling up Miami with 20 shots to 10.

It seemed as the game wore on, one could almost feel the nerves on the field between the two teams, one waiting for the other to mess up first.

Rising head coach Rick Schantz commented about the game and his team’s performance.

“Miami is a very good team. They’re good in possession. They’re difficult to press. We didn’t really commit to the game plan in the first half,” Schantz told reporters after the game. “Once they started knocking it around on us, we were forced to drop off quite a bit. We struggled in transition again in the first half. The second half you saw a real commitment to who we are, Schantz said according to Phoenix FC press release.

At the final whistle, it was Phoenix with the victory and three important points in the standing to push them further into the top-four position in the western conference.

Rising will look to extend their streak to seven after their next game on Sunday May 1 against LA Galaxy II.

The last time the two teams met was April 9 at Wild Horse Pass.  Phoenix won that game 3-1 off a brace of goals from tonight’s hero, Seijas and a late goal from Marcus Epps.