Ashley Sanchez had a hat trick in the North Carolina Courage\u2019s 6-0 rout of the Chicago Stars (5-17-1) at Martin Stadium in Evanston and now leads the league\u2019s Golden Boot race with 18 goals.<\/p>\n
Sanchez, lurking at Stars goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan\u2019s back post, capitalized on a cross and knocked a ball that was pinging around the box into the back of the net in the 11th minute.<\/p>\n
Just six minutes later, Chioma Okafor pushed the lead to 2-0 with her first NWSL goal.<\/p>\n
The Courage (12-8-3) combined for three goals in eight minutes in the second half. Shinomi Koyama scored in the 61st minute and two minutes later, Ryan Williams collected a rebound and put it away to make it 4-0.<\/p>\n
Sanchez converted a penalty before capping her hat trick with a header off a cross from Williams in the 81st minute<\/p>\n
In the day\u2019s other NWSL matches, the Washington Spirit came from behind to beat the Portland Thorns 2-1; the Orlando Pride overtook the Houston Dash 3-1; and the Seattle Reign beat the San Diego Wave 1-0.<\/p>\n
Denver Summit 3, Gotham FC 0<\/p>\n
Yazmeen Ryan scored against her former team and Kat Asman made four crucial saves in the Denver Summit\u2019s 3-0 win on Sunday over visiting Gotham FC.<\/p>\n
Gotham (13-4-6) has sat atop the NWSL standings for six weeks, with its last loss coming July 4 against the Wave. The expansion Summit had already beaten Gotham once this season, recording the first win in franchise history 2-0.<\/p>\n
Denver (8-8-6) opened the scoring in the 50th minute when Yuzuki Yamamoto connected on the volley from Ayo Oke.<\/p>\n
Rookie Olivia Thomas extended Denver\u2019s lead in the 82nd minute, driving into the box before ripping a shot past goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.<\/p>\n
Six minutes later, Ryan sent a shot to the bottom left corner out of Berger\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n
Washington Spirit 2, Portland Thorns 1<\/p>\n
M\u00e9lissa Bethi scored her first league goal in her first start for the Spirit in the 80th minute in Portland.<\/p>\n
Trinity Rodman beat the defenders down the sideline and crossed to Bethi for the goal.<\/p>\n
The Thorns (11-7-5) set the tone early when Sophia Wilson converted a penalty in the 18th minute. Portland was awarded the kick after Monique Ngock pulled down Thorns midfielder Nina Nijstad in the box.<\/p>\n
The Spirit (13-6-4) leveled the match in the 59th minute when Nijstad committed a foul against Bethi in the penalty box. After video review, Tara Rudd stepped up to score the lick.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s Andi Sullivan was ejected in the seventh minute of stoppage time after a rough tackle just outside the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Orlando Pride 3, Houston Dash 1<\/p>\n
Barbra Banda made Orlando Pride history Sunday, converting a 42nd-minute penalty to become the club\u2019s single-season scoring leader.<\/p>\n
Her 14th goal of the season surpassed Marta\u2019s record set in 2017, as the Pride went on to defeat the Houston Dash 3-1 in Orlando.<\/p>\n
Banda\u2019s record-setting goal capped a first half in which Orlando took advantage of early Houston mistakes. Dash rookie Leah Klenke put the Pride ahead with an own goal in the 14th minute before conceding a penalty against Summer Yates 28 minutes later.<\/p>\n
Banda sent her shot into the bottom left corner past goalkeeper Jane Campbell, giving Orlando a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.<\/p>\n
Banda has scored in eight different home appearances this season, a feat achieved by only four players in NWSL history.<\/p>\n
Orlando (9-12-2) stretched its advantage in the 64th minute on Haley McCutcheon\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
Houston (7-11-5) scored less than 10 minutes later when Khyah Harper\u2019s cross found Kiki Van Zanten, who headed the ball past goalkeeper Cosette Morch\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Seattle Reign 1, San Diego Wave 0<\/p>\n
Maddie Mercado finished off a lofted cross from Maddie Dahlien with a header for a goal in the Reign\u2019s win at home.<\/p>\n
Seattle (10-8-4) played with a player advantage over San Diego (12-8-3) for much of the match after Wave defender Amelia Van Zanten was shown a red card in the 13th minute. Van Zanten was sent off for a tackle from behind on Dahlien.<\/p>\n
Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey made six saves before exiting the match following a collision with Wave forward Ludmila. Cassie Miller helped preserve Seattle\u2019s clean sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashley Sanchez had a hat trick in the North Carolina Courage\u2019s 6-0 rout of the Chicago Stars (5-17-1)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1048270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[336721,960,11436,5386,1818,5466,5468,53703],"class_list":["post-1048269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-ashley-sanchez","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-stars","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-north-carolina-courage","tag-nwsl","tag-womens-soccer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117228137962300859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}