Dallas Trinity FC 0, Carolina Ascent FC 1
Dallas Trinity FC dominated Carolina Ascent FC Sunday afternoon at Cotton Bowl Stadium and lost anyway. Sydney Martinez made six saves, Heather Stainbrook hit the crossbar, and Rylee Baisden headed in the winner in the 89th minute as the Ascent clinched a second consecutive USL Super League playoff berth with a 1-0 smash-and-grab in front of 5,225 Fair Park faithful.
Dallas (9-10-5, 32 points) remains fourth with four matches to play.
The afternoon at Fair Park opened with a college exhibition between Texas and Oklahoma on the Cotton Bowl pitch. Oklahoma won 3-2 on a goal in the 90th minute. It was a preview of what was coming, though no one in the crowd knew it yet.
Mostly sunny skies and 74 degrees greeted kickoff for the main event. Nathan Thackeray made changes from the 3-0 loss at Brooklyn a week earlier, restoring Lauren Flynn to the starting XI at center back for her first appearance since her lower leg injury. Maya McCutcheon moved into the double pivot alongside Stainbrook, replacing an injured Wayny Balata. Jasmine Hamid made her first Dallas start on the left wing, with Chioma Ubogagu on the right and Bethany Bos up top.
For Carolina, Philip Poole was without two of the players who built their seven-match unbeaten run. Sydney Studer is out for the season with an ACL injury. Giovanna DeMarco is out with a leg injury. Poole set up in a 4-4-1-1 with Shea Groom tucked in behind Mackenzie George and Jenna Butler wearing the armband.
Dallas came out with purpose. Whatever Brooklyn had taken from this group, the week of training had given it back. Lexi Missimo forced the first save from Martinez in the 6th, a blocked right-footed effort from the center of the box off a Hamid pass.
Martinez, who just returned from CONCACAF W Championship qualifiers with Puerto Rico, would be tested early and often by The Golden Girls. Stainbrook tried her from outside the box in the 13th, saved in the center of goal. Bos missed a close-range chance in the 14th after an Ubogagu fast break, dragging it left. The ball was living in Carolina’s half. Dallas was winning 50/50s, controlling possession, and getting into the box.
Carolina’s lone first-half threat came in the 14th when Tyler Lussi drove in from a difficult angle on the right and forced a big save from Tyler McCamey. It was McCamey’s only save of the match. Everything else belonged to Dallas.
Stainbrook went on target again from distance in the 21st, saved at the bottom left. Hamid had a right-footed effort blocked in the 27th after a Flynn pass found her on the left side of the box. She forced Martinez into another save in the 41st, a left-footed shot to the bottom left corner off a Stainbrook assist.
Then, deep into first-half stoppage time, Stainbrook struck a left-footed shot from the center of the box off a Cyera Hintzen assist. It hit the crossbar. Dallas went into halftime with 13 shots, four on target, one off the woodwork, and zero goals. Carolina had two shots and one on target.
“They were excited with what they’d done in the first half,” Thackeray said afterward. “Excited with the performance. They knew what it looked like, what it felt like.” His halftime message was the one he would repeat after the final whistle: “You can’t let teams stay around.”
The second half opened the same way. Hamid missed to the right from a difficult angle in the 60th after combining with Missimo. McCutcheon rose to meet an Ubogagu cross in the 62nd, and her header was blocked; Bos got to the follow-up at the back post, and Martinez saved it at the bottom right corner.
A Lussi yellow in the 64th gave Dallas a free kick that produced a Hamid shot blocked from outside the box. Flynn rose to meet a Missimo cross in the 69th and headed it toward the center of goal. Martinez held it. Every time Dallas found a way through, Martinez had an answer.
Camryn Lancaster came on for Ubogagu at 70 with Caroline Kelly on for Bos at the same moment. Kelly missed a header from the center of the box in the 77th.
Jenny Danielsson replaced Stainbrook in the 84th. Dallas kept creating. Martinez kept saving. Carolina’s back line cleared 34 balls on the afternoon and blocked 10 shots. The Ascent goalkeeper finished with a 9.4 Sofascore rating.
Then the 89th minute. Addisyn Merrick ran up the right side, whipped a cross into the box, and Baisden, on since the 80th, dove and headed it past McCamey to the bottom right corner. Carolina’s second shot on target all afternoon. 1-0.
“It was a really good whipped ball across and a diving header,” Flynn said. “We need to stop that attack earlier, not get overloaded on the left side.”
(Anna Dolmany, Dallas Trinity FC)
Dallas threw numbers forward in the six minutes of added time. Lancaster dragged a left-footed shot wide from outside the box off a Flynn pass in the 91st. Caroline Swann came on for McCutcheon in the 92nd and got her head to a Missimo cross in the 94th. Blocked.
The final whistle came on a Dallas throw-in going nowhere.
When someone mentioned the late disappointments that have piled up this spring, Flynn nodded. “If we finish our chances, we don’t put ourselves in the position where that’s a game-changing goal. I think our defense did have a solid performance; we just have to see it through all 90 minutes, and we didn’t do that today.”
She drew the contrast with a week ago. “The feeling is very different from last week. Obviously, I wasn’t there with the team, but I know we were not proud of our performance, and I think it showed this week in practice. We trained really hard. We wanted to make sure we got back to our identity, and I think we did today. It’s just a tough result because I think we did play well, we worked hard. This was who we are.”
Hamid, making her first start in a Dallas kit, put it plainly. “It hurt. I think we dominated the game completely. We definitely should have put chances away. We had a lot of chances, a lot of shots on target, and it definitely hurt because we felt like that was our game.”
Thackeray was direct about where the problem lives. “It’s not down to tactics. It’s down to personal execution. At the minute, we don’t look like we’ve got someone who’s going to put the ball in the back of the net on a consistent basis.” He went on: “Nothing’s broken. It’s not broken. We just need to improve and get better.”
Carolina moves to 42 points in third place, clinching a playoff berth, alongside Sporting JAX, who clinched two weeks ago, and Lexington SC, who secured a spot with a win last night. Dallas clings to fourth at 32, three clear of DC Power and Spokane, with four matches and only one playoff spot remaining.
The series between the clubs finishes 1-2-0 to Carolina this season, 3-3-1 all-time.
Dallas takes on Brooklyn FC (6-11-7, 25 points) on Saturday, April 25, at 6:00 p.m. CT at Maimonides Park. The Golden Girls will be looking to avenge the 3-0 defeat they took just last week on the Coney Island boardwalk. The match airs on KFAA and streams on WFAA+, Peacock, and TUDN Radio.
STARTING LINEUPS
DAL: McCamey; Hintzen, Flynn, Wisner (C), Guidry; McCutcheon, Stainbrook; Hamid, Missimo, Ubogagu; Bos
CAR: S. Martinez; B. Martinez, Nally, Butler (C), Merrick; Colman, Nabet, Corbin, Lussi; Groom; George
SCORING SUMMARY 89′ — CAR: Rylee Baisden (Addisyn Merrick)