Dallas Trinity FC 2, Lexington SC 2
It was a gorgeous March evening at the Cotton Bowl, the kind that makes you remember why outdoor soccer in Dallas in the spring is worth showing up for. The sun was still low over Fair Park when the teams took the field, and by the time it dropped below the skyline, the Golden Girls were already on the front foot.
What followed over the next 90 minutes was the most complete performance Dallas has put together in weeks, and it still wasn’t enough to beat Lexington Sporting Club.
Catherine Barry converted a rebound in the third minute of stoppage time to level a match Dallas Trinity FC had worked the better part of an hour to win, sending 3,651 fans home with a 2-2 draw. The result drops Dallas (8-6-5, 29 points) to fourth in the USL Super League standings, two points behind Lexington SC (7-2-10, 31 points) with nine matches remaining.
Nathan Thackeray made several notable lineup adjustments from Thursday’s draw at DC Power. Caroline Swann earned her first professional start, joining Wayny Balata in a double pivot with Heather Stainbrook and Lexi Missimo behind Bethany Bos. Camryn Lancaster started on the wing in place of Sealey Strawn, with Chioma Ubogagu coming off the bench later in the match. Maya McCutcheon, who started at DC, made way for Balata.
Dallas controlled the first half without being able to show much for it. Missimo headed a cross just wide in the 10th minute, and Dallas moved the ball with purpose throughout, until the 26th minute, when a moment of misfortune changed the scoreline. Cyera Hintzen‘s attempted interception of an aerial ball fell backward to Alyssa Bourgeois, who ran the ball past the backline and rolled a calm finish past goalkeeper Tyler McCamey. Dallas didn’t panic. Samar Guidry made a superb sliding block moments later to prevent a second, and Bos nearly leveled before the break, chipping the keeper off her line only to watch it drift wide of the far post. At halftime, Dallas had the better of most numbers. Just not the one that counted.
Thackeray’s message at the break was to be more progressive and break lines faster. The response was immediate. Lancaster won a foul 20 yards out in the 54th minute, and Missimo stepped over the ball with Balata. She’d been talking to Balata before the kick, feeling confident from distance, the surface wet, the wall tall. She bent it over and into the lower left corner past Katherine Asman, third in the league with 44 saves on the year.
“My role on the team is to produce, to get a goal or an assist,” Missimo said. “That’s my job.” It was her second goal of the season, matching her total from a 2024-25 campaign shortened by injury.
Thackeray turned to his bench, and the match opened up further. Strawn came on in the 70th minute, and Ubogagu followed in the 74th.
In the 79th minute, Ubogagu took a corner short to Strawn, got a backheel in return, and drove a low cross to the back post. Lauren Flynn swept it home with one touch, her second goal of the season and the first corner Lexington had conceded all year.
The routine was one Thackeray had drawn up himself. He’d tried to run it at DC Power five days earlier but couldn’t get the execution right. “I said to him, if we get one from that side, run that one first,” he said of set-piece coach Gio Solis. “And he did, and yeah, it came off.” Ubogagu’s assist was her fourth of the season, making her just the third player in league history to reach ten in a single campaign.
Flynn, whose goal had Dallas believing, reflected on the set-piece work afterward. “We had just practiced that specific set piece a lot this week,” she said. “As a defender, you don’t get a lot of chances up top, so it’s always exciting to be able to put that away.”
With eleven minutes left and the lead in hand, Thackeray sent on Sydney Cheesman for her professional debut, replacing Hintzen. The newly-signed defender stepped onto the pitch and won the ball back almost immediately, exactly as Thackeray had asked.
The two go back a ways, Thackeray having worked with Cheesman at UNC before pushing to bring her in when she became available. “It means a lot to me, given the history that we’ve had together,” he said. “She won the ball back straight away. It’s going to be an exciting future for her.”
Dallas went compact, trying to hold through stoppage time. For most of it, it worked. Then Emina Ekic found Allison Pantuso with a cross, McCamey got a hand to the header, and Barry was there at the back post. Ten goals on the season now for the Lexington forward, one behind the league leader. The same Cotton Bowl crowd that had been celebrating moments earlier went quiet.
“With what we put into the second half, I thought we deserved to come away with the three points,” Thackeray said. “My disappointment is for them, not because of them. Late goals happen and they feel like a kick to the stomach, but it’s part of the game.”
Coach Thackeray added that despite two draws in a row, he has no concerns about the group’s mentality. “These guys will stay motivated. They like to win, they like to compete. We’re pushing for performances as well as results, and I’ve been really impressed over the last couple of weeks with how we’re playing.”
Flynn put it simply. “I think we all want those last four minutes back. But there are a lot of positive takeaways from this game, and we just need to build on that for Sunday.”
Sunday brings the biggest test yet. Sporting JAX (11-4-4, 37 points) arrives at the Cotton Bowl at 4:00 p.m. CT for a match that will also celebrate Girl Scouts Day, Women’s History Month, and the 1984 Dallas Sting, the first women’s soccer team to represent the United States internationally. Thackeray’s team was already on the training pitch as he spoke to the media after the final whistle.
SCORING SUMMARY 26′ — LEX: Alyssa Bourgeois 55′ — DAL: Lexi Missimo 79′ — DAL: Lauren Flynn (Chioma Ubogagu) 90+3′ — LEX: Catherine Barry