**WASHINGTON, D.C.** – The North Carolina Courage stole all three points from the Washington Spirit as a stoppage time goal from forward Olivia Wingate propelled the visitors to a 2-1 win in the nation’s capital. Washington took the lead first through Tara McKeown, but an equalizer just eight minutes later came from the Courage’s Brittany Ratcliffe. A competitive second half then saw Wingate’s winner in the second minute of stoppage changed the tide completely with too little time left for Washington to respond.
The first real attack of the net came after some real hustle from attacker Lena Silano which would end up creating a chance for midfielder Marissa Sheva in the 19 ^th minute. After a long ball ahead, Silano sprinted toward the pass that would have been easily cleared by the North Carolina defense had it not been for her 100% effort. After recovering the ball then, Silano opened up her body and floated in a cross that the Courage defense was content clearing a few yards. That clearance went as far as Sheva near the top of the box, but she could not get her knee fully over the ball to keep it from creeping back under the crossbar as the chance missed just high.
A relatively tame first half, the closest the Courage would come was in the 37 ^th minute through midfielder Brittany Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe was on corner kick duty for the away side when her ball in was cleared toward the edge of the box. A 50/50 challenge between two Spirit and Courage players then saw the ball squeaked out to the top of the box where Ratcliffe was able to swing a hard right foot and send it back toward goal. Though Spirit goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart likely could have left it to go wide, she produced safe hands to parry it out for a corner, though the Courage were unable to produce anything from that.
Finally, breakthrough came in the second half when attacker Tara McKeown put home a corner kick at the back post in the 54 ^th minute to separate the two sides. Silano took the set piece for Washington and drove a ball deep into the box that was disguised in part by a decoy run toward the center of the penalty area. Rising above all to meet that ball was McKeown, and she guided her header to the back post and in for the evening’s opener.
However, Washington’s lead lasted just eight minutes as Ratcliffe got her goal in the 62 ^nd minute to bring the Courage back level. North Carolina were on the ball through midfielder Frankie Tagliaferri on the right side of the field when Tagliaferri picked up Ratcliffe’s run toward the edge of the box. Sliding a pass in behind, Ratcliffe latched onto it and rounded the Spirit’s shotstopper Barnhart before slotting home from an extremely tight angle to help her side itself even again.
Washington then created a look on goal again in the 73 ^rd minute when midfielder Nicole Douglas had a deflected shot nearly sneak in the near post only to end up just wide in the end. Douglas had received a pass following a Courage clearance in the left side of the box where she cut in and took on two North Carolina players in her quest toward goal. Opening up her foot to shoot from there, her effort took a hard deflection and came close to finding the back of the net but ended up wide in the end.
As the back and forth continued, North Carolina forward Kerolin then had a chance in front of goal squandered by some good defender by Spirit stalwart Sam Staab in the box. Kerolin had been played down toward goal when she decided to pull up and attempt to find a different angle to shoot from. However, in pulling up, Staab was able to get a crucial foot on the ball to dispossess the Brazilian and the move was ended.
However, North Carolina would earn one more vital chance that would produce a fine team move finished off by attacker Olivia Wingate in the second of four minutes of added time to sway the match for good in the end. Moving forward on the ball, Kerolin was approaching the penalty area from a central position when she played a pass out wide for teammate Haley Hopkins. Hopkins then picked her head up and saw the run of Wingate on the left side of the box and pushed a pass back across goal that allowed Wingate to tap in from close range.
Seeing the match out, the Courage earned a vital three points and picked up their first win of this year’s Challenge Cup, defeating Washington, 2-1, at Audi Field. The result takes them atop the East Division standings in the Challenge Cup, while the Spirit sit in 3 ^rd place with three points from three games (W1 L2).

Match Highlights

Match Highlights