**SAN DIEGO, Calif.** – The Orlando Pride marched into Snapdragon Stadium and left with a very impressive first victory of the year, defeating San Diego Wave FC by a 3-1 scoreline thanks to three unanswered goals. After San Diego’s Jaedyn Shaw opened the scoring early on, all of Orlando’s Mikayla Cluff, Haley McCutcheon and Adriana Leal found themselves on the scoresheet to lift the visitors on Saturday night.
Early action saw the hosts threaten in the opening 10 minutes as Sofia Jakobsson, who recently scored for her side in the Challenge Cup, had an attempt from close in saved at the near post and eventually cleared by Orlando. However, in the 12 ^th minute, San Diego would open the scoring through Shaw as she raced to the near post to edge a defender and whip a first-time effort past Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse. Makenzy Doniak was in possession on the right flank for San Diego and beat a low cross in that only targeted Shaw. The forward then did the necessary work of getting to the near post just before her marking defender and produced a quality effort from there as the ball sailed past Moorhouse and in.
Five minutes later, San Diego nearly double its lead as Makenzy Doniak went from provider to near scorer. Doniak was on the ball in the left side of the penalty area where she drew Moorhouse out of goal. Getting around the goalkeeper, Doniak attempted to squeeze the ball through a tight angle toward goal, only for an Orlando defender to make a crucial goalline clearance and prevent the finish.
After surviving San Diego’s early attacking onslaught, Orlando’s comeback began in the 26 ^th minute when midfielder Mikayla Cluff got on the end of a corner kick delivery from Adriana. The Brazilian’s deep cross toward the back post from the set piece landed squarely on the head of Cluff, who did very well to get her effort past goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan from a narrow angle and pull one back for her side to level the match.
Not stopping there, Orlando then took the lead just before the halftime interval via the head of defender Haley McCutcheon following a beautiful cross into the box in open play. Midfielder Viviana Villacorta was just a few yards away from the edge of the 18-yard box when she spotted the run of McCutcheon on the right edge of the area. Curling the ball in, McCutcheon then produced a deft header still from some 10 yards out that looped over the head of Sheridan and into the back of the net to take their first lead of the night.
Into the second half, San Diego found an early chance to equalize, again through Jaedyn Shaw, in the 50 ^th minute. Jakobsson took the ball down the left side and all the way into the penalty area where she picked up her head and attempted to find Shaw before reaching the endline. Connecting with the forward, Shaw’s effort at the near post was unable to sneak in between the posts and fell narrowly wide.
The two sides traded chances over the following 20 or so minutes with San Diego coming close to finding an equalizer of its own at multiple points. However, the defining moment for the visiting Pride came via Adriana’s sharp finish in the 69 ^th minute that separated the sides for good. Taking the ball in the box on the right side after a pass from teammate Erika Tymrak, Adriana had little room to work with but attempted to pick out the far post with a low drive. The drive somehow avoided a San Diego defender and crept past Sheridan to give Orlando a commanding two goal lead.
As the hosts attempted to mount a comeback with little time remaining, their last quality look at goal came in the 89 ^th minute when forward Amirah Ali was able to put the ball in the net only for the offside flag to be raised.
In the end, Orlando’s first victory of the season was a well-deserved one as the Pride made the most of their attacking chances and defeated the Wave on the road. Orlando still sits bottom of the table with just those three points to their name through five games though, while San Diego sits third after five games, though Gotham FC could drop them as low as fifth dependent on their result on Sunday.

Match Highlights

Match Highlights