WPSL Wrap Up: Week 4
This Week
Wednesday
FC Spirit 3-1 Dayton Dutch Lions
Claudia Melgar opened the scoring in the thirteenth minute for Spirit. Ella Hamner doubled the score in the thirty-sixth minute. Carley Groh halved the deficit for DDL in the sixty-third minute but Hope Lensing connected to a long free kick in the seventy-eighth minute to settle it.
Minnesota Thunder 5-1 Mankato United
Thunder went ahead in the eighteenth minute, Paige Peltier scrambling home a ball which had pinballed around the box following a corner. Mankato equalized in the twenty-fifth minute when Lucy Weninger chipped the Thunder goalkeeper from forty yards out. A right wing Paige Kalal corner was headed in by Grace Estby to re-establish the Thunder lead in the 63rd minute, the lead was extended further only three minutes later when Kaitlyn MacBean dribbled inside from the left and placed it snugly inside the far post. Four minutes after that, Madeleine Poor slotted home from close range, following a drive down the left by Estby. Neat passing between the gridiron hashes was finished by Kendall Stadden.
Rochester United 0-3 Manitou FC
Manitou took the lead in the seventeenth minute when Allyson Hamski blasted the ball through the hands of the Rochester goalkeeper from the top of the box. A long ball up field was misjudged by the defense and as defender and goalkeeper recovered, Nicole Moore rolled the ball into an empty net. Another long ball in the ninetieth minute saw Denise Hamdan outpace the defense and make it 3-0.
Thursday
Kansas City Scott Gallagher 2-1 St Louis Scott Gallagher
Kansas City won the second Scott Gallagher derby, on the back of goals from Adriana Benassi and Caroline Carter. The visitors had a goal from Ashley Martinez.
Lou Fusz Athletic 6-0 AFC Columbia
Three goals in the first half and three in the second for the home side. No hat-tricks but three players scored twice (Lyndsey Heckel, Nina Preusser, Emily Gaebe).
Friday
Chicago KICS 1-0 Midwest Muskrats
KICS took the lead in the 27th minute, Josie Bieda with the calm finish from close in after a scramble in the six yard box. It turned out to be the decider.
Mankato United 0-2 Sioux Falls City
One way traffic for the visitors, seeking their first win after two draws to start the season. City broke through in the sixtieth minute through Barbie Castellanos, finishing after an initial shot was blocked on the line. Kaylie Rock doubled the lead five minutes later, scrambling home from inside the six yard box.
Rochester United 2-1 Dakota Fusion
After chances for both sides, it was the home side who broke through in the thirty-third minute, a firm pass between the gridiron hashes set Samara Nunn free to glide into the penalty area, she was able to finish it despite fierce pressure from a back tracking defender. The second goal came about when Sienna Latta took a pot shot from the edge of the box and it was spilled into her own net by the Fusion goalie. Fusion halved the deficit on the hour mark when Kadyn Sharpe cut inside and unleashed a ferocious shot from 20 yards out over the United keeper. In the end, however, the visitors were unable to make their late pressure count.
Milwaukee Torrent 6-0 Quad Cities Rush
Elsi Twombly opened the scoring from close range in the third minute and Rush goalie Allison Mirimanian kept the game close in the face of relatively constant Torrent pressure. Unfortunately for the visitors, they lacked an outlet to relieve some pressure and threaten a positive result. With twenty minutes on the clock, Alexa Melitis on the high press, forced the turnover and passed the ball across the area for the easy finish for Leyla Kelbel to make it 2-0. It was 3-0 in the twenty-third minute as Mirimanian dropped a corner and Lola Wojcik tapped it home. The fourth goal came after Lainey Higgins finished off the smooth pass between the gridiron hashes by Wojcik underneath Mirimanian.
In the sixty-seventh minute, Torrent scored their first of the second half as a left wing corner by Maletis deflected in off a Twombly header. The last goal of the game came in the seventy-ninth minute, when Higgins played a pass in towards Miranda Sofia and saw it bounce over the attacker and into the net.
A few times, Torrent employed eight-woman substitutions, taking advantage of the league’s unlimited substitutions with re-entry allowed.
Minnesota Thunder 7-2 St Croix Legacy
It’s not far from Stillwater to Plymouth, but it will be a long bus ride home. Thunder broke through in the fourteenth minute, Paige Kalal with a snapshot from the top of the box. The equalizer came off a period of sustained pressure from St. Croix culminated in a Claire Cater cross/shot being dropped by the Thunder keeper and tapped home by Olivia Knoepfle in the thirty-first minute. Parity would only last two minutes, however, as a cross from the right by Kalal was converted by Caroline Bailey on the half turn at the top of the penalty area.
A left wing corner from Kalal on fifty-three minutes was headed home on the back post by Paige Peltier for a 3-1 lead. A free kick from 45 yards out was blasted home by Avery Murdzek to make it 3-2 only two minutes later. Straight up the other end and another Kalal corner was headed home at the far post, this time by Kaitlyn MacBean for a 4-2 scoreline. The game then entered a twenty minute spell where neither team scored, before Thunder scored a late flurry to give the final scoreline an appearance which scarcely reflected the match overall. The fifth goal came as a Andrea Barth cross in the seventy-seventh minute hit the post and was then finished off by Sofia Caballero. It was 6-2 in the eighty-fifth minute, as Bailey got her second from close range, volleyed into the roof of the net. The final goal of the game came in the eighty-ninth minute, Kendall Stadden scoring off her own rebound after a good run down the right.
FC Dayton 5-0 Dayton Dutch Lions
A double from Dara Russo and single goals from Diana Benigno, Kylee Simmons and Lauren Bastian gave FCD a comfortable win against their cross-town rivals.
Saturday
FC Spirit 0-3 FC Pride
Madison Swingle, Addy Joiner and Paige Miller had the goals as Pride picked up the win on the road.
Courage opened their account in the sixth minute Riley Smith fed through by a neat exchange in midfield. Their lead was doubled in the thirty-first minute as Aya Saiki finished off a rebound on the right from an initial save of a hard-struck left sided shot. It was only three minutes before the third goal came, this time a leaping header by Saiki from a right wing corner. It was 4-0 in the fiftieth minute, Smith adding a second after the ball was passed across the area.
MapleBrook Fury 0-0 Manitou FC
There are 27 miles between the two sides, but on this occasion no goals and a point each were taken home.
Sunday
St Louis Scott Gallagher 0-0 KC Courage
A goal less first half saw a relatively even match, with the best chances going the way of Courage – notably a free kick from just outside the penalty area in the 33rd minute, which was comfortably saved. The closest to the deadlock being broken was in the 71st minute, as SLSG flicked home a searching cross from the left but it was ruled out. In the eighty-fifth minute, KCC missed a golden opportunity to steal a win when an incisive move down the middle saw a shot skew wide.
Quad Cities Rush 1-1 Midwest Muskrats
Abigail Glackin finished off Ellie Whiteman’s assist for Rush’s first point of the season. Stephanie Perretta scored for the Scrats.
FC Spirit 2-4 FC Dayton
Dayton opened the scoring in the twelfth minute as a shot from the right was parried into the path of Dara Russo, who nearly broke the crossbar with her finish. Four minutes later, Kennedy Neighbors equalized for Spirit from a break.
The deadlock lasted until the fifty-eighth minute when a long ball down the left wing was slotted home by Russo but surrendered again, Claudia Melgar converting a PK in the sixty-first minute for Spirit – smashed into the top right hand corner. Spirit hit the crossbar in the seventy-second minute with a rasping drive. Good goalkeeping by both sides kept it tied until the eighty-second minute, when Kylee Simmons took a speculative, long range shot along the ground and it hit the diving Spirit keeper and went in. Eight minutes later, the match was finally salted away as Heidi Orloff finished off a counter attack from midfield with a calm finish across the goalie. Russo completed her hat trick just before the end.
Dakota Fusion 0-1 Mankato United
Fusion remain rooted to the basement of the North and Mankato claim their first win of the season. The deciding goal from today’s match came when Isabelle Ohlmann connected to a long ball lofted into the left back spot, with only seven minutes played.
Sioux Falls City 2-0 St Croix Legacy
City had the best of the opening few mins, and could have gone ahead when Rylee Haldeman’s shot from the top of the box was acrobatically tipped around the top of the goal by Hadley Johnson in the Legacy net. The home side went ahead in the forty-third minute after a touchline cross from the left by Haldeman was whipped onto the waiting foot of Kaylie Rock. The second goal came in the sixty-sixth minute as Kendra Park chipped the St Croix keeper from the edge of the area and the ball bounced down off the underside of the crossbar.
A ding-dong battle at De La Salle. After a back and forth opening fifteen minutes, Raptors opened the scoring, Reegan Hess finishing off a close exchange of passes down the gut of the KICS defense. The home side equalized two minutes later, Karli Ferguson capitalizing on poor goalkeeping to squeeze the ball in at the near post from a right wing run. Raptors retook the lead in the twenty-fifth minute, a curling drive from Jessica Reinhardt just outside the penalty area past the KICS keeper, who was patrolling her six yard box. Only a minute later, Raptors notched what would be the decisive goal, taking advantage of an under hit goal kick to quickly play the ball around the KICS defense and make it 3-1. Hallie Peak had the finish. The home side made it close again in the fiftieth minute , Josie Bieda launching a shot from 25 yards out past the helpless Raptors keeper. Despite applying some pressure late on, KICS were unable to get an equalizer.
Becca Smith set up Meredith Haakenson in the sixteenth minute, for the close range finish. Sofia Boman went on a blistering run down the right side and ripped the ball into the far side netting to make it 2-0 only three minutes later. Khyah Harper tracked down a route 1 pass from Emily Heslin at the half way line and slotted home from an acute angle for 3-0 with fifty-one minutes on the clock. Harper blasted in her second from 20 yards out in the fifty-third minute to make it four. Harper then added an assist for number five, finished off at close range by Katelyn Beulke in the sixtieth minute. It was 6-0 in the seventy-first minute after a ball rolled slowly in after Sadie Harper challenged a defender and the ball clattered off the two and into the net.
Playoff Crystal Ball
With half the season in the books and the WPSL only entering single teams from each division (and one each from the North and the Heartland that only have one division) into the playoffs, the following teams are in position to earn a spot in the Central Division playoffs right now:
FC Milwaukee Torrent (Lake Michigan leaders) v FC Dayton (National Road leaders) for the Midwest Conference crown.
Colorado Rapids Women (Rockies leaders) v Utah Avalanche (Wasatch leaders) for the Mountain Conference., in a repeat of last year’s mountain mash.
Heartland winners KC Courage and Northern winners Minnesota Thunder get byes as winners of conferences with no divisions.
Coming Up
Wednesday
Joy v Minnesota Thunder – 4pm CT
KC Scott Gallagher v Sunflower State – 7pm CT
St Louis Scott Gallagher v Lou Fusz – 7pm CT
Salvo v MapleBrook Fury – 8pm CT
Thursday
Mankato United v St Croix Legacy – 7pm CT
Friday
Minnesota Thunder v Sioux Falls City – 6pm CT
Midwest Muskrats v Quad Cities Rush – 7pm CT
Iowa Raptors v Milwaukee Torrent – 7pm CT
Dayton Dutch Lions v FC Spirit – 8pm CT
Saturday
Chicago KICS v Quad Cities Rush – 12pm CT
Dakota Fusion v Salvo – 2pm CT
AFC Columbia v Sunflower State – 3pm CT
FC Pride v Columbus Eagles – 3pm CT
FC Dayton v FC Spirit – 3pm CT
Lou Fusz Athletic v KC Scott Gallagher – 5pm CT
Sunday
St Louis Scott Gallagher v AFC Columbia – 11am CT
St Croix Legacy v Manitou FC – 2pm CT
Lou Fusz Athletic v KC Courage – 2pm CT
Columbus Eagles v Dayton Dutch Lions – 2pm CT
Sioux Falls City v Rochester United – 4pm CT
Chicago KICS v Milwaukee Torrent – 5pm CT
Mankato United v MapleBrook Fury – 5pm CT
Tuesday
Joy v Dakota Fusion – 7pm CT