San Diego — The North Carolina Courage put on a show in the first-ever NWSL fixture multicast across various national platforms with a 1-4 win over San Diego Wave FC Sunday night at SnapDragon Stadium. The Courage improves to 10-1-8 on the season for 31 points to sit fifth in the league table through 19 weeks.

With a raucous crowd of over 26,000 on hand to see off Alex Morgan, the Courage put a damper on the stadium’s spirits early, scoring in the 4’ off a corner kick. Malia Berkely’s insert found Haley Hopkins in the middle of the box, who rose and delivered a lofted header into the top corner of thenet to open the scoring.

It was the third goal of Hopkins’ sophomore season and first regular season assist of Berkely’s career. Bianca St-Georges earned the opportunity for North Carolina, pushing the envelope up the right flank to earn a corner.

The crowd surged back into the game when a penalty was called on the Courage in the 9’ to set up a seemingly sure-fire Morgan moment, but Casey Murphy had other ideas, springing to her right to deny the spot kick and keep the Courage in front. It was Murphy’s first career penalty stop on 11 faced in regular season play.

A corner for San Diego, fittingly in the 13’, found the back of the net to equalize. Just moments before both teams came together at midfield to honor a legend of the game, as number 13 waved goodbye to the crowd before subbing off in well-deserved ceremonial fashion.

Another successful corner got the Courage back in front in the 21’ when Feli Rauch notched her first NWSL goal, heading home another insert from Berkely, this time from the opposite corner. Berkely became the eighth player in the NWSL with multiple assists in a single match this season.

The Courage kept bringing the pressure as a nice build led to a Tyler Lussi chance in the 37’ that drilled the far post. St-Georges made the effort pay off just before halftime, rocketing home a shot off a defender and past the keeper to double the advantage just as stoppage time began.

It was yet another assist from Berkely, playing a through ball down the middle in the run of play this time. Her third of the night matched the most by a single player in any NWSL regular season match this season in just one half and she became the second player in Courage history with three assists in a single regular-season match, joining Debinha who did so in 2019.

The Courage played the final half-hour up a player after Wave keeper Kailen Sheridan was sent off after VAR determined a denial of a goal-scoring opportunity for her challenge on St-Georges. Meredith Speck put an exclamation point on the evening with a stoppage time goal, scoring on an assist from Olivia Wingate.

Match Notes:

Dani Weatherholt reached 10,000 career NWSL regular season minutes when the clock hit 43:00 Sunday.

Maycee Bell made her Courage debut, subbing on in the 88’ of play.

Alex Morgan was honored pregame for her retirement from professional women’s soccer.

Up Next: The North Carolina Courage have a quick turnaround to host Bay FC this Friday, September 13, with a 7 p.m. ET kickoff. The force is strong at WakeMed Soccer Park for Star Wars Night. Tickets are available here.

Source: wralsportsfan.com