**Portland, Oregon –** Portland narrowly defeated San Diego, 3-2, on Sunday night after first half goals from Thorns’ Sophia Smith and Hina Sugita, who earned a brace, were cancelled out by second half efforts from the Wave’s Isabella Briede and Taylor Kornieck.
It didn’t take long for the hosts to get on the board, with the forward Smith finding the back of the net after just four minutes. Receiving a pass on the left side from teammate Morgan Weaver in a central position, Smith took a pair of touches toward the endline before she produced a shot that almost looked cross-cum-shot. However the method, Smith’s effort powered past Wave goalkeeper Carly Telford to give Portland an early advantage.
After settling into the match, Portland then doubled its lead in the 21 ^st minute through midfielder Hina Sugita. After Thorns forward Christine Sinclair had an effort ricocheted off the cross bar following a central pass, Sugita was in the right position at the right time and headed the rebound in past Telford to go two-up.
Then, a few minutes before the stroke of halftime, Sugita struck again to put her side three to the good. An impressive Thorns goal saw a couple of blocked shots then turned into a chipped pass in the penalty area toward Sinclair after recovering possession multiples time. Flicking the ball on to Sugita at the back post, the midfielder pushed an effort from inside to out that landed directly in the bottom right corner for her brace.
Going into the break, the hosts held a comfortable 3-0 lead.
However, directly out of the break, the visitors put enough pressure on the hosts to pull one back and make a game of the night. San Diego’s Emily van Egmond slid a perfect pass to forward Alex Morgan, who was running into the penalty area. Getting on the end of it, Morgan was able to then produce a shot that was well-saved by Portland goalkeeper Bella Bixby, though the netminder could not prevent a rebound opportunity. Getting the ball back just near where she first shot, Morgan placed a low cross a few yards to her left for midfielder Isabella Briede. Briede was then able to get enough power on her right-footed effort and beat Bixby for the first time.
Barely under 10 minutes later, San Diego first thought they had pulled back another goal as a failed clearance from a Wave corner resulted in Morgan hitting the post with her follow-up effort as that chance went missing.
Looking to make another change in the 67 ^th minute, the Wave brought on Taylor Kornieck, who has been one of the team’s best overall performers to date. On the field for hardly a few seconds, Kornieck entered the field of play and immediately found herself in a scoring opportunity following a Wave corner. With her first touch of the game, Kornieck headed in Kelsey Turnbow’s corner to bring the deficit to one approaching the last quarter of the match.
Despite their best efforts to close the second half, San Diego were unable to find a late equalizer as Portland bounced back from what was just their first defeat of the year to OL Reign with three points against the Wave.

Match Highlights

Match Highlights