Dallas Trinity led by two goals for 13 minutes early in the second half at Fort Lauderdale United on Friday night, then needed the rest of it to protect a one-goal margin.
Neeku Purcell made all four of her saves after halftime, and the 2-1 final gave Dallas a third straight win to open a four-game road stretch.
Rain fell most of the day in South Florida and continued into kickoff, leaving the pitch at Amerant Bank Field soaked from start to finish. Temperatures sat in the mid to upper 70s under mostly cloudy skies, humid enough to slow both sides down in transition.
Dallas wore its white and gold pinstriped Foundation kit on the road for the first time this season. Fort Lauderdale played in all black.
Lee Nguyen made three changes from last week’s lineup. Sydney Cheesman started at right back, with Carissa Boeckmann pushed into midfield in the rotation Boeckmann normally makes from that spot. Aria Nagai and LJ Moore each made their first start of the season, Nagai at the 10 and Moore at forward, with Jasmine Hamid moving back out to the right wing. Camryn Lancaster, Sofia Cedeño and Seven Castain dropped to the bench.
Fort Lauderdale, under head coach Tyrone Mears, made one change of its own. Taylor Smith started in place of Kelli Van Treeck in midfield.
Braun’s Header, Knox’s Finish
The Golden Girls controlled the ball from the opening whistle, and Fort Lauderdale did not press to stop it, content instead to sit in and cut passing lanes. Felicia Knox shot wide from the right side of the box in the 10th minute, and Moore headed just wide of goal in the 26th, meeting an Onyeka Gamero cross for Dallas’s best look of the first half hour. Knox tried again from distance in the 30th minute, and Fort Lauderdale keeper Haley Craig turned it away.
The breakthrough came off a corner in the 32nd minute. Boeckmann swung it in, and Sophia Braun rose to meet it with a header from close range. Knox got a touch on the way in, and Dallas was up a goal.
It briefly looked like Braun’s header had gone in. Dallas’s broadcast credited her with the goal for most of the night. It was not immediately clear in the moment, on the broadcast or to the broadcast team, but the official scoring, confirmed by Sofascore and the club, credits Knox with the finish and Braun with the assist, her first of the season.
Fort Lauderdale had its best answer of the half soon after, Farrah Walters seeing a shot blocked from the left side of the box on a Smith assist in the 36th minute.
Dallas carried the 1-0 lead into the break, having controlled the tempo the entire half. Braun, on the broadcast at halftime, credited the group for grinding through a slower start than usual. “I think it took us a little longer than normal to kind of settle into our game,” she said. “I’m proud of the way we played, and I’m proud that we’re winning, and I think we have a little more to give in the second half.”
Hamid, Forty Seconds In
Dallas doubled its lead before Fort Lauderdale could settle into the second half. Forty seconds after kickoff, Hamid beat the last defender to the ball, cut inside and finished right-footed across goal into the bottom left corner. It was her fourth goal of the season and her first against the club that developed her.
Friday marked Hamid’s first match back in South Florida since Dallas signed her away from Fort Lauderdale midseason, where she made 45 appearances and scored 13 goals across two seasons. Her 46th-minute finish was her first career goal against her former club, her fourth of the fall, and moved her to second in the league in goals scored this season.
She credited the group behind her afterward. “I have a lot of respect for this organization. It does feel good, but I appreciate their staff as well,” she said. “From Fort Lauderdale to Dallas, I wouldn’t be able to score without my teammates. They create the chances for me and help me move off the ball. They do it for me, so I do it for them.”
Boeckmann came close to a third in the 51st minute, ringing a shot off the crossbar from outside the box after Moore’s pass found her. Boeckmann had slipped taking the corner that started the move and briefly lost the ball before recovering it for the shot.
Gordon Cuts It Back to One
Fort Lauderdale answered in the 59th minute. Kiara Locklear played a through ball that put Sh’nia Gordon in alone against Cyera Hintzen, and Hintzen’s challenge did not get enough of the ball to stop it. Gordon finished low to make it 2-1.
Mears turned to his bench immediately, bringing on Emily Thompson, Abigail Lindsay Hugh, and Van Treeck all in the 60th minute. Thompson made an immediate impact, drawing a save from Purcell within five minutes of coming on, and the substitutions shifted the balance of the final half hour toward the home side.
The Final Half Hour
Dallas made its own changes in the 65th minute, sending on Cedeño, Lancaster and Castain for Knox, Nagai and Moore. Gamero had a shot saved by Craig in the 66th minute, and Lancaster had one saved in the 73rd, but the ball spent most of the closing stretch at the other end. Purcell saved from Van Treeck in the 65th minute, from Thompson in the 68th, and from Gordon in the 76th, each one turned away as Fort Lauderdale tried to force an equalizer.
Hamid picked up a yellow card in the 79th minute for a foul on Kelsey Oyler. A minute later, Purcell made her biggest save of the night, getting down to stop a close-range Thompson shot, and the two players collided on the play. Play stopped for an injury delay before Purcell returned to the goal.
“As a goalkeeper, you kind of have to enjoy that,” Purcell said of the closing stretch. “You have to be ready, want to make a save, and want to make a play. At the same time, you have to be a pessimist. You have to communicate and mitigate all dangers before they happen. It’s really just a moment to stay locked in. Because you have so many things to do, you focus on one thing at a time, and that helps you stay composed.”
Fort Lauderdale’s best look at an equalizer came in the 85th minute, when Walters missed just wide of a Gordon cross from close range. Kalea Eichenberger, on for Gamero in the 86th minute, made a defensive play soon after to snuff out another Fort Lauderdale chance. Walters missed again from close range in the 94th minute off a set piece, and in stoppage time Purcell got a hand to one more Fort Lauderdale effort, deflecting it off the post as the final whistle sounded.
Nguyen connected the finish to a game his team had not closed out earlier in the season, at home in the season opener. “This group is very talented. It’s going to take that mentality and grittiness,” he said. “We had a very similar game in the first game of the year, but this time we were able to close it out. I’m very proud of them.” Dallas opened the fall with a 1-1 draw against Tampa Bay Sun after conceding a stoppage-time equalizer while leading.
Fort Lauderdale’s Night
Fort Lauderdale has now lost three of its last four, but Friday was not without its bright spots. Gordon scored the goal and set up two more chances in the closing stretch, and Craig kept Fort Lauderdale in the game in the first half with saves on both of Knox’s attempts. The triple substitution at the hour mark changed the tenor of the night and nearly produced an equalizer. It fell to Purcell, and to a Dallas back line that gave up few clean looks after the hour, to see it through instead.
Around the League
DC Power FC and Tampa Bay Sun FC played to a 1-1 draw at Audi Field. Shea Connors put Tampa Bay ahead in the 62nd minute off a Jordyn Listro assist, and Emma Jaskaniec equalized eight minutes later, assisted by Alyssa Walker, with both goal-scorers coming on as second-half substitutes. Walker was named Player of the Match.
Carolina Ascent hosts Brooklyn FC on Saturday, and Sporting Jacksonville hosts Lexington SC on Sunday to close out the rest of Matchweek 6.
Dallas’s third straight win moves the club to 10 points and into third place in the Gainbridge Super League, and back above the playoff line as we approach the midway point of the Fall bridge season.
The Golden Girls’ road stretch continues on Friday, September 25, at Lexington SC, 6:30 p.m. CT on Peacock.