Detroit Michigan – The visiting Louisville Triumph FC narrowly defeated Detroit City FC on Saturday night, handed their first-ever loss in Premier Arena Soccer League play as focus shifts to a massive home tie against Cincinnati Sirens FC on February 10.
Things started off well for Le Rouge, playing in front of a sold-out crowd at the Detroit City Fieldhouse for the third consecutive match. Just two minutes into the first quarter, midfielder Hannah Crum created space for herself before uncorking a shot that snuck its way into the corner to put Detroit City FC ahead 1-0.
Their lead would be short-lived, though, as Louisville went up the other end and scored just twenty seconds after kickoff after a clever build-out from the back saw a path open up for the visiting Erin Yenney whose powerful strike found its way past Le Rouge’s Gabby Schriver to level the match at 1-1.
Louisville Triumph would come into this match having just narrowly lost by a 6-3 scoreline against four-time national champions Cincinnati Sirens just seven days prior. Throughout the match, they showed a good mentality and an ability to weather the storm, thanks to great saves by their goalkeeper Elyssa Francis.
With just 2:40 remaining in the first quarter, Detroit City FC earned a corner kick after the visiting goalkeeper saved a powerful shot by Kayla Addison. On the corner, Tatiana Mason cleverly set up first-time starter Joan Sieja who had the composure to make it 2-1 to Detroit City.
The game was turned on its head in the second quarter as Louisville would dictate play for most of the 15 minutes. Detroit City FC would create their share of chances but struggled to carve through the visitors with the same ease they experienced in the first quarter.
With just over seven minutes remaining in the half, Louisville was played through on goal. They were first met by Gabby Schriver, but she struggled to get a firm hand on a ball that was never settled. From there, Louisville was able to poke it home to equalize the match once again.
Less than two minutes later, a blue card was issued to Detroit’s Hannah Crum, the opening goalscorer. Louisville would be surgical with their power play opportunity and score their third goal of the match just seconds later to take their first lead of the evening.
With less than five minutes to go in the third quarter, Louisville found themselves down a player following the issuing of a blue card. Similar to their strong power play at the end of the first half, their penalty kill would step up in a big way.
Detroit City FC had numbers committed forward in search of an equalizer, and Louisville won the ball back, quickly pouncing up the field to score their fourth goal of the evening. Making the scoreline 4-2.
A few shots from Detroit City FC over the final 20 minutes of play would result in a Clair Ciarlino goal to make things 4-3, but the visitors were able to see out the match and hand Le Rouge their first-ever loss in arena soccer play.
For more information about Detroit City FC, visit detcityfc.com and follow @DetroitCityFC on Twitter and Facebook and @detroitcityfootballclub on Instagram.
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Primary Media Contact: Jarrett Maki (Sports Information Director, jarrett.maki@detcityfc.com)
