Dallas Trinity once again secured three points at home, edging Brooklyn FC 1-0 at the Cotton Bowl. A 13th-minute header from defender Maya McCutcheon proved decisive.
After a day that saw rain and flooding across the Metroplex, 2,447 Trinity faithful arrived at Fair Park to a cloudy and humid evening. Dallas took the field in the same 4-2-3-1 from the previous week. The 2024-25 Gainbridge Super League Young Player of the Year Sealey Strawn replaced Deb Abiodun, who was recalled from loan by Washington Spirit earlier this week. Former Spirit center-back Kiley Dulaney replaced Hannah Davison, who was not in the lineup this week with an excused absence.
The game opened with Brooklyn booting the opening kickoff across the touch-line, leading to an immediate Dallas throw-in. That early miscommunication would be a sign of things to come for Brooklyn FC. McCutcheon’s set-piece goal came in the 13th minute. The Murphy, Texas, native and former FC Dallas U-17 headed the ball into the goal on a corner kick, assisted by Wayny Balata, who has now increased her goal involvements to two on the season.
“Most of the time when you play defender, you don’t get a lot of attacking moments, so I was really happy I got to capitalize on being higher up on the field, and it was just fun playing the six tonight. You get a chance to get on the ball a little bit more. I got some churns and bigger opportunities that I got to play. So I had a lot of fun playing it. And then our defense was able to keep a shutout. I think we were just really aggressive. We never hesitated. I think a lot of times in our game last week, we were a bit hesitant and how other people beat us the ball, where everyone just ran through second balls tonight.”
Maya McCutcheon
Brooklyn unraveled with discipline issues, collecting eight yellow cards and a red card on the bench — including a coach ejection. Brooklyn FC earns the dubious distinction of receiving the league’s first double yellow-red card.
“Oh boy, it was kind of crazy,” said Trinity Head Coach/General Manager Chris Petrucelli after the game. “Very physical with a lot of stoppages and very little rhythm. I feel like we handled the environment very well because it was chippy. We were able to get behind them a number of times.”
The second half grew increasingly physical, with both teams trading hard tackles and possession proving difficult to sustain. Strawn had three successful sliding tackles resulting in takeaways. Caroline Kelly, who was brought on with fresh legs for Chioma Ubogagu in the 74th minute, had some excellent runs up the right side. Her three surging efforts nearly doubled the lead, but each rolled just wide of the far post.
Dallas held firm, and goalkeeper Rylee Foster earned her first USL-SL clean sheet behind a solid back line.
“The intelligence that we had to finish the game was solid. It’s really easy to get caught up in the drama of that game. Players were tossing themselves about, diving and everything. There’s some really hard tackles that were put in. But for the girls to rise above that, not stoop down to their level, and just try to play as much football as we can because we knew that the more we string passes together, that’s how we’re going to win.”
Rylee Foster
With six points from two matches, Trinity sits alone atop the table. Next week, they hit the road for the first time, beginning a five-match stretch away from home against expansion side Sporting JAX in Florida.
