Alicia Cervantes erased a two-goal Dallas lead within 20 minutes of coming off the bench. But Jasmine Hamid’s stoppage-time winner seals the deal for The Golden Girls at the Cotton Bowl.
Jasmine Hamid scored two minutes into stoppage time Saturday to give Dallas Trinity a 3-2 win over Chivas Femenil in the State Fair Clásico. Seventeen minutes earlier, Alicia Cervantes had finished wiping out a two-goal Dallas lead with her second goal in eight minutes.
The team buses came into Fair Park behind a police motorcycle escort on the last Saturday of the State Fair of Texas.
The field inside the Cotton Bowl still carried two weekends of college football. The Texas and Oklahoma end zones were visible at either end, and patches of dirt ran along the flanks. The bare ground out wide changed how the ball ran.
It was 68 degrees under clear skies at the 4 p.m. kickoff. Dallas wore its olive-green Live Oak kit for the first, and only, time.
The announced crowd was 15,326. A year ago, 22,838 watched Club América win the first Clásico 3-1.
Lee Nguyen made nine changes from the 1-1 draw at Brooklyn a week earlier. Only Sophia Braun and Carissa Boeckmann kept their places. Maddy Anderson, Neeku Purcell’s backup all of the fall, started in goal. Lauren Flynn, back from a lower-leg injury and unused at Brooklyn, started in the back line. Heather MacNab, who had not played a league minute since signing Aug. 5, started. Fifteen-year-old Academy player Kayia Brewer started in her professional debut alongside Drew Coomans, Jamie Shepherd, Aria Nagai, Kalea Eichenberger and LJ Moore. Hamid, Camryn Lancaster and Seven Castain began on the bench.
Chivas head coach Antonio Contreras started without most of his regulars. Cervantes, Jasmine Casarez, Joseline Montoya, Denise Castro and Natalia Mauleón were all among the substitutes, as was usual starting keeper Blanca Félix. Heidi González started in goal behind a back line with Cristina Ferral and Samantha López, and Adriana Iturbide led the line in a 4-2-3-1.
A Great Ball from Drew
Dallas had the better of the first half and went after Chivas down both flanks. The opener came in the 30th minute. Coomans crossed from the right, and Brewer, unmarked, finished it.
“Honestly, I’m just so grateful for the opportunity I was presented,” Brewer said. “Just a great ball from Drew, and I’m just so happy about everything.”
Brewer said her teammates’ reaction was what stuck with her. “Everyone is just so happy for me, telling me congrats and giving me big hugs and smiles,” she said. “It’s a great feeling to have that from all the players you look up to.”
The Same Move, Twelve Minutes Later
The second goal was close to a copy of the first. In the 42nd minute, Eichenberger worked the ball down the right and found Moore nearly alone. Moore, a Dallas native, finished for a 2-0 lead at the break.
“It was a really fun environment. I’ve never played in any environment like that,” Moore said. “Because sometimes, there were times where we didn’t feel like the home team at all. We were boosting each other up, and I think that was really important in helping towards my goal.”
Licha Off the bench
Contreras changed the match at the 56th minute with four substitutions at once. Cervantes, Casarez, Damaris Godínez and Félix, in goal, all came on. Natalia Colín and Mauleón followed in the 62nd minute.
Chivas looked a different side. In the 67th minute, Cervantes caught the Dallas defense flat with a shot that made it 2-1.
Montoya and Castro came on in the 71st minute. Four minutes later, a Chivas shot came back off the crossbar and dropped to Cervantes inside the six-yard box. She put it in for 2-2.
Cervantes is Liga MX Femenil’s all-time leading scorer. Her 161st goal for Chivas, in April, made her the top scorer in Club Deportivo Guadalajara’s history, the men’s side included.
A draw after 90 minutes would have sent the match to a penalty shootout.
Lancaster, Again
Two minutes into stoppage time, Hamid scored the winner off a Lancaster assist. Both had come off the bench late in the match. Hamid leads Dallas with four league goals this fall.
The assist was Lancaster’s second in two Clásicos. Last October, she crossed for Sealey Strawn‘s header, Dallas’s only goal in the loss to America.
“We should be able to build confidence from this moment,” Nguyen said. “Playing against a team like that, being able to control it for a majority of the game. This is a good boost of confidence for us, and now we know, when we go into the postseason, what that can look like.”
He compared the afternoon to what Dallas hopes to play in December. “This is very much what a playoff, championship game will look like with this type of quality, intensity, and the fans cheering on,” he said. “The noise was amazing, the energy was vibrant, so it was a good preview.”
Back to Guadalajara
Chivas return to the Apertura sitting second in Group 2 at 7-0-3, four points behind America. They had not conceded in three league matches before the international break.
Chivas host Necaxa on Tuesday night at Estadio AKRON, the first of four regular-season matches left. The last is the Clásico Nacional against America on Nov. 6.
A Sister in Morocco
Kayia Brewer is the younger sister of Dallas defender Meila Brewer, who missed the match while with the U.S. Under-17s at the World Cup in Morocco. The U.S. opens its group against Samoa on Monday. Kayia scored in her first exhibition with a professional team.
Dallas is now 1-1 all-time in the State Fair Clásico. The five goals were the most in the event’s two editions. Walmart presented the Trinity Star, the Clásico trophy, to Dallas after the match.
Around the (Super) League
On Friday, Ashlyn Puerta scored four times as Sporting JAX beat Fort Lauderdale United 4-1 in Jacksonville. Sh’nia Gordon had given Fort Lauderdale an eighth-minute lead. Puerta’s first came from the penalty spot in the 24th minute.
Carolina Ascent beat DC Power 1-0 the same night. Rylee Baisden scored in the eighth minute off a Jenna Butler assist, and Carolina moved to 22 points.
On Saturday, Lexington SC came from behind to beat Tampa Bay Sun 2-1. Eleanor Dale put Tampa ahead in the 15th minute. Catherine Barry equalized in the 73rd, her 20th career regular-season goal, all for Lexington. Sarah Griffith won it in the 85th.
Dallas sits on 11 points, level with DC Power, with Lexington on 13 and Jacksonville on 14.
Dallas plays DC Power at Audi Field on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 2 p.m. CT.
