Hamilton’s Hot Foot Fires NC Courage Past Houston

North Carolina Courage 5 – 2 Houston Dash

Cary, NC—Kristen Hamilton came in like a wrecking ball.

Friday night’s match between the North Carolina Courage and the Houston Dash was barely 20 seconds old when Jaelene Hinkle picked off a Houston pass and send a perfect ball through to Hamilton, who turned and sped past the defense. Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell came out to challenge and stopped Hamilton’s hard shot. Courage forward Lynn Williams picked up the rebound but her shot just missed to the left of the goal.

“I’m still bummed about that,” Hamilton said, smiling, about the missed shot after the game.

In the second minute, Hamilton again got in alone on Campbell, who made the stop, but the flag was up as Hamilton was offside.

But there was a buzz in the air that this was going to be a night to remember for the Courage and their supporters.

Jump-cut to the sixth minute: Merritt Mathias and Debinha played a give-and-go that sprung Mathias loose. She carried the ball toward the Dash 18-yard box and slung a low ground pass across the box through the Dash defense. Hamilton got her toe onto the ball just hard enough to get it past Campbell for the first goal of the evening.

“The first one was just good to get on the board early,” Hamilton said following the game. “I think that something we kind of talked about that we haven’t done in a while is just score early and set the tone for the game.”

Hinkle and Hamilton linked up again in the 24^th  minute when Hinkle lobbed a perfectly-weighted pass into Hamilton’s path. Hamilton caught up to the ball and pulled it back to clear away Claire Polkinghorne, then hammered the ball past Campbell to double the Courage lead.

Houston wasn’t going to go quietly into the night, however. In the 10^th  minute, Kristie Mewis unleashed a rocket from just outside the box that was headed for the upper 90. Instead, the ball skiffed the crossbar and went out of play. In the 24^th  minute, Mewis and Kyah Simon played the ball back and forth at the top of the Courage 18-yard box. With two Courage defenders closing in on her, Mewis toe-poked the ball past a surprised Katelyn Rowland and just like that Houston saw daylight.

Seven minutes later, Courage midfielder Denise O’Sullivan blocked a Houston pass at midfield. The deflection went to Williams who turned on the jets and flew through the Dash defense. Campbell came out for a challenge but there was little she could do when Williams eyed the top left corner of the net. North Carolina’s two-goal lead was restored.

But the Dash came back again right before halftime when Simon caught the tail of a long ball out of midfield and slotted it past Rowland to cut the Courage lead in half once more. North Carolina head coach Paul Riley made some adjustments at halftime to put a stop to Houston getting those long balls through midfield, bringing in rookie Lauren Milliet on for Leah Pruitt.

At the other side of halftime, though, Hamilton made sure everyone knew this was going to be HER night. In the 54^th  minute she took a pass from Williams at the penalty spot, made a little Salsa move to get around Dash defender Allysha Chapman, and slammed a right-footer home for her hat-trick.

“Hamilton was on fire,” Riley said of his forward’s performance. “When she was injured last week [at the Washington Spirit]and not available, that hurt us a lot.”

North Carolina kept Houston under heavy attack throughout the second half. The Dash absorbed much of the pressure but it got Sophie Schmidt and Haley Hanson to take some bad fouls earning them each a yellow card.

Hamilton had one more dance lesson to give before her night was done. The play started with Hinkle getting a ball over to Debinha, who did some fancy footwork of her own to shake loose from Hailey Hanson and found Hamilton at the top of the penalty box. Hamilton shimmied around Lindsay Agnew and made the left-footer count.

Julia Spetsmark entered the game in the 75^th  minute in relief of Hamilton, who got a massive ovation from the crowd and her teammates. When the whistle blew fifteen minutes later, North Carolina took all three points, moving them up the table into second place.

Hamilton gave her team full credit for their overall performance on the night. “I think it was a good performance overall by the team,” she said. “I think everybody worked really hard and stuck to the game plan.”

“We thought Hamilton and Lynn would cause a lot of trouble, which they did,” Riley said of his front line after the game.

Not to be overlooked on the night was the performance of Hinkle and Mathias, who owned the flanks and figured in nearly all of North Carolina’s goals. Williams also had an outstanding game for the Courage, breaking her scoring dry spell, she could have had two or three in the game. Her work up front with Hamilton broke the game open for the Courage.

Final Notes

• This was Kristen Hamilton’s second multi-goal game in 2019. She had a hat trick against Orlando on June 1st.
• With her assist on Hamilton’s 54^th minute goal, Lynn Williams now owns the lead in assists in the NWSL with 23 helpers. On the season, Williams and Hinkle lead the league in assists with four each.
• Courage captain Abby Erceg was held out of the lineup Friday night as a precaution. Erceg injured her leg during warmups last week in Washington. Coach Paul Riley said she probably could have played on Friday but he didn’t want to risk worsening the injury.
• Rookie midfielder Lauren Milliet saw her first regular-season minutes for the Courage when she came on at halftime for Leah Pruitt. She had a strong outing, getting involved in creating scoring chances and tracking back on defense.
• Riley had high praise for those players who stepped into the lineup with the absence of many players in the World Cup. “You’ve got to give people like Hamilton, Cari Roccaro, Kayleigh Kurtz—they’ve waited a long time to get their moment to shine and over five or six games they’ve been very, very good. If we had to go on with this team for the rest of the season, we’d battle on: I think we’d do all right.
• When asked about the status of Stephanie Labbé after the game, Riley noted that she had just returned from the World Cup and hadn’t trained all week. This led to a discussion about when the USWNT players may be available for selection. “All the World Cup players are going to need time coming back,” Riley said. “You might see this lineup for a while. Mentally, physically, it’s a lot to ask of the players to come back and play immediately. I know Jess McDonald is going to want to get back on the field, but everybody else, we’re going to have to take our time. But Labbé’s ready to go; she’ll be available next week.” He said that once the USWNT players return to Raleigh, he’ll have individual conversations with them and get them back in the lineup whenever they are ready. The earliest he anticipates having them available will be the match against the Red Stars in Chicago on July 21^st.
• Just as North Carolina FC did the night before, the Courage honored Charlie Slagle with a moment of silence before the start of Friday night’s match. Slagle was a key architect in building the Carolinas into a soccer powerhouse, which includes making Cary, NC a frequent site for the College Cup championship. Slagle died on Tuesday, leaving behind his family and thousands of adoring and devastated friends and fans.
• Next up for the Courage is a July 13^thhome game when they’ll host Reign FC.

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: K. Rowland; J. Hinkle, K. Kurtz, C. Roccaro, M. Mathias; Debinha (M. Speck, 84’), M. Zerboni ©, D. O’Sullivan, L. Pruitt; K. Hamilton (J. Spetsmark, 75’), L. Williams

Houston Dash: J. Campbell; A. Chapman (L. Agnew 65’), A. Brooks, C. Polkinghorne, S. Murray; S. Schmidt, H. Hanson, C. Nairn (C. Privett, 77’); K. Ohai (S. Huerta, 65’), K. Simon, K. Mewis

Score:
North Carolina Courage: 5
Houston Dash: 2

Goals:
North Carolina Courage: K. Hamilton (M. Mathias, 5’), K. Hamilton (J. Hinkle, 18’), L. Williams (O’Sullivan, 31’), K. Hamilton (L. Williams, 54’), K. Hamilton (Debinha, 71’)

Houston Dash: K. Mewis (K. Simon, 24’), K. Simon (S. Schmidt, 43’)

Discipline
North Carolina Courage: none
Houston Dash: S. Schmidt, YC, 53’; H. Hanson, YC, 69’

Attendance: 5,066

Photo gallery: North Carolina Courage vs. Houston Dash

All photos by Victoria Klum