Boston Legacy FC set an NWSL attendance record for an inaugural game with 30,207 fans filling Gillette Stadium, but Gotham FC played spoiler by notching a 1-0 win over the expansion club Saturday afternoon in Foxborough, Mass.
Esther Gonzalez broke a scoreless draw in the 55th minute when teammate Lilly Reale sent a cross on the ground into the box, and Boston defender Bianca St-Georges accidentally backheeled it to the Gotham star for an easy strike.
Gonzalez had 13 goals last year for the reigning NWSL champion Gotham.
St-Georges later earned her second yellow card in the 77th minute, forcing the Legacy to play with 10 women the rest of the way.
Bay 2, Summit 1
Joelle Anderson’s tiebreaking goal capped off a wild 31 minutes and proved to be the game winner as host Bay FC spoiled the first game in Denver Summit FC history with a win in San Jose.
Alex Pfeiffer got the scoring going in the eighth minute to give Bay a 1-0 lead. Melissa Kossler evened it up in the 20th minute with Denver’s first goal but that momentum was quickly wiped away when Janine Sonis was shown a red card for violent conduct in the 27th minute, leaving the Summit short-handed the rest of the way.
Four minutes later, Pfeiffer struck again, this time dribbling through the Summit defense and finding Anderson just above the center of the box. Anderson immediately sent it to the goal and beat Abby Smith in the bottom-left corner.
Courage 2, Racing 1
Ashley Sanchez netted a brace, her second goal the difference in the game as North Carolina edged Racing Louisville FC in Cary, N.C.
Sanchez’s first goal came in the 29th minute, a right-footed shot off a cross from Payton Linnehan that beat Jordyn Bloomer. Sarah Weber answered in first-half stoppage time when Courage goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan’s clearing pass was instead corralled by Emma Sears just outside the box. Sears charged toward the goal then found Weber standing wide open in front of the net.
Sanchez answered in the 86th minute for the Courage when her ball she sent toward the net was instead immediately deflected by a Racing defender, sending the ball high into the air and over the head of a leaping Bloomer for the goal.
Current 2, Royals 1
Host Kansas City scored twice in the final 33 minutes, once off a back-heel pass and the other on an impressive individual effort, to take down Utah.
Tatumn Milazzo got the visitors on the board in the 35th minute with a header from a pass from Cloe Lacasse off a corner kick. Utah then stood tall on defense, but the Royals could not keep the Current out of the net for long.
Croix Bethune, playing her first game with Kansas City after two seasons with Washington, evened the match in the 57th minute when Kayla Sharples set found her in front of the net with a one-touch heel kick off a pass from just inside midfield.
Ally Sentnor then netted the winner in the 69th minute when she dribbled from just outside the top-left corner of the goal box to the middle of the penalty area, then sent a right-footed kick to the right of a diving Mia Justus and into the net.
Dash 1, Wave 0
Makenzy Robbe, who spent the previous four seasons with San Diego, scored in her first game against her former team and Houston weathered 18 minutes of total stoppage time to win on the road.
Robbe’s goal was itself in stoppage time, as she took a pass from Maggie Graham in the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time, then sent the ball across the goal box and past DiDi Haracic into the bottom-left corner of the net.
The Wave had 19 shots to the Dash’s five — and held a 9-2 advantage in shots on goal — but Houston goalie Jane Campbell made numerous big saves, including a leaping punch that sent a shot over the crossbar in the 63rd minute.
