Christen Press and Rachel Corsie of the Utah Royals photo by Dantey Buitureida).
Sandy, U.T- Yesterday evening, the Utah Royals earned three points at home against the Washington Spirit in front of 8,154 fans who witnessed a 1-0 victory at Rio Trinto Stadium.
The Royals also won 2-1 over the Houston Dash on Sunday’s match and mark their second consecutive win. On the other hand, the result of this match marked the seventh consecutive loss for the Spirit, which is their longest losing streak so far this season.
“We’ve got a little bit of bite inside of us. We really want to show we’re better,” stated Royals head coach Laura Harvey. “If we turn this into a nine-point turnaround, even Seattle might be looking over their shoulder.”
To keep up with the winning momentum, the Royals came out with a prepared front line. Forward Katie Stengel was the game changer and scored the winning goal against Houston and worked well with Christen Press to keep the Spirit back-line working diligently.
The Spirit returned the challenge early on when forward Ashley Hatch crossed the ball to the right side of the pitch to meet Mallory Pugh, but Pugh’s header missed the goal.
Stengel continued to create opportunities on goal, but Washington goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe was on top of it, recording a total seven saves in the match. In the 28th minute, Press also took the ball up the field and the shot on goal, but was saved by Bledsoe. Following the rebound, Erika Tymrak went in for the header, but wasn’t successful.
Five minutes after the half, the Spirit began to create spaces that put Utah in a tight position as forward Andi Sullivan crossed to Cali Farquharson, which could’ve played out for a direct goal, but Farquharson wasn’t able to finish in time.
Once again, Stengel changed the game in the 74th minute as she scored her fifth goal of the season, sending the ball past two Spirit’s defenders and directly to the back of the net for a 1-0 win.
“We could have found Erika and Christen (Press) a thousand times more than we did,” Harvey said. “We’ve won, but we’re frustrated because we felt like we could’ve won it by a lot more.”
Up until the last minutes, Utah continued to push through on plays to see more goal opportunities, but Bledsoe covered her ground.
The Royals will host the Seattle Reign for their next match on Saturday, August 11 with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET, which will be featured on Lifetime.
SCORING SUMMARY:
UTA-Katie Stengel (Assisted by Taylor Lytle), 74’
BOOKING SUMMARY: NONE
UTAH ROYALS FC: #18-Nicole Barnhart, #3-Rebecca Moros, #16-Smantha Johnson, #2-Rachel Corsie, #17-Sydney Miramontez, #21-Christen Press (#4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 80’), #23-Gunnhildur Yrsa Jonsdottir, #15-Erika Tymrak (#12-Taylor Lytle, 65’), #9-Lo’eau Labonta, #24-Katie Stengel, #8-Amy Rodriguez (#10-Diana Matheson, 73’)
WASHINGTON SPIRIT: #1-Aubrey Bledsoe, #23-Tori Huster, #24-Estelle Johnson, #4-Rebecca Quinn, #22-Mallory Eubanks, #5-Whitney Church, #6-Andi Sullivan, #7-Taylor Smith, #16-Rose Lavelle (#8-Meggie Dougherty Howard, 46’), #11-Mallory Pugh (#17-Cali Farquharson, 31’ – #3-Caprice Dysasco, 73’), #33-Ashley Hatch
TOTAL SHOTS: UTA 18-4 WAS
SHOTS ON GOAL: UTA 8-0 WAS
FOULS: UTA 3-5 WAS
OFFSIDES: UTA 0-1 WAS
CORNER KICKS: UTA 4-0 WAS
SAVES: UTA 0-7 WAS
Utah Royals
