Utah Royals FC defeated the Portland Thorns 3-1 in its second match of NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup group play, thanks in part to some key plays from a former BYU soccer player.

With the Royals clinging to a 2-1 lead in the second half, Ex-Cougar Michele Vasconcelos ended the Thorns hopes of a comeback by scoring her first goal of the season off a Thorns deflection.

Gaining possession after winning a tackle, Ana Tejada drove up the middle of the field and laid the ball off to the Utah native, who targeted the far post. Vasconcelos’s shot sent Portland goalkeeper Lauren Kozal to her right but it deflected off of a Thorns center back and into the near-post net.

Playing at America First Field for the first time under Interim Head Coach Jimmy Coenraets, the Utah Royals came out hot.

Just three minutes into play, forward Hannah Betfort found the net, her first with the blue-and-gold.

Receiving a ball from captain Paige Monaghan inside the six, Betfort flicked the ball first-time off the far post to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead, tying with four other goals for the fastest goal scored in URFC history (3′).

The Royals continued to press on the gas, adding to the lead in the 21st minute.

In transition, Monaghan played a ball to rookie Ally Sentnor who drove up the middle of the field and took an outside touch, freezing her defender before firing towards the far post for her team leading fourth goal of the season (in all competitions).

Holding a 2-0 lead the hosts entered the locker room leading or tied in all statistical categories; shots (15/2), shots on goal (8/1), possession (51/49), and corners (3/3).

Despite a slow first half, Portland flipped the script early in the second half controlling majority of possession in the Royals’ final third. As the Royals worked back into the flow of the game Brecken Mozingo found herself on a breakaway in the 63rd minute.

In transition, Sentnor played a ball off to her left to the former BYU Cougar and Mozingo beat the keeper in a 1v1 situation to find the net near the far post. The goal was waived off, however, on a controversial offsides call against Mozingo.

Just minutes later Portland started to claw at URFC’s lead, capitalizing off a Royals error in the defensive third. Finding herself on a second ball Olivia Moultrie made a move on Tejada and fired to the far post, finishing in the upper 90 bringing the Thorns within one.

That set the stage for Vasconles’s big goal to keep the Royals in front.

Portland showed no quit testing the Royals defense until the final whistle. A last defender save by Kaleigh Riehl and diving save from Mandy Haught preserved the Royals lead which it rode out for the final few minutes of stoppage time for three points.

URFC (1-1-0, 3 pts, 2nd in Group A) next returns to action at home against Tijuana for its final game of group play in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup on Wednesday, July 31, at America First Field.

Kickoff is at 8 p.m. MT, with tickets available at https://www.utahroyals.com/tickets.

Salt Lake Bees beat El Paso to win 10th straight

The Salt Lake Bees secured a sweep of their six-game series against the El Paso Chihuahuas on Sunday afternoon, taking home the victory by a final score of 5-2 to push their winning streak up to 10 games.

For the last game of the set against El Paso, the Bees handed the ball to Chase Silseth for the start, who threw 21 strikes in 26 pitches over 2.1 excellent innings before exiting the game abruptly due to injury.

This transformed the contest into an impromptu bullpen game for Salt Lake, with the first person summoned to the mound being Ryan Miller. The righty worked the next two innings of the game, allowing a solo home run but nothing more before making way for Travis MacGregor, who tossed 2.2 frames of scoreless ball with three strikeouts in a very impressive showing.

Next up for the eighth inning was Tayron Guerrero, who recorded two outs but was relieved in favor of Bryan Shaw after loading the bases and walking home the Chihuahuas’ second run of the day. Shaw managed to work out of this jam by inducing a flyout of Clay Dungan and then went back out and worked a perfect ninth to finish the job and lock down the victory in the series finale.

At the plate, the Bees had traffic on the bases all afternoon long, which helped them get on the board early once again. The scoring started in the second inning, with Zach Humphreys lining a first-pitch fastball from El Paso starter Carl Edwards Jr. right up the middle to plate to Bryce Teodosio for the first run of the day.

Salt Lake kept its foot on the gas after this, as Jason Martin increased the lead up to three in the third on a two-run home run, his second of the series and 10th of the season.

Things slowed down a little bit from here, with the only tally in the middle innings coming on a double steal attempt in the fifth that helped Martin cross the plate, but after El Paso cut its deficit down to two, Charles Leblanc came through with a 444-foot blast in the bottom of the eighth that capped off the scoring and gave the Bees a much needed insurance run.

The win marked the 10th in a row for the Bees, which is the first time that they have seen a streak reach double digits since April 12-27, 2008, when the team rattled off 13 in a row to cap off a 21-1 start to that season. It also secured a six-game sweep of the Chihuahuas, which is the first one of that kind for Salt Lake since the current scheduling format came into effect in 2021.

The Bees will now try to keep the good vibes rolling into their next series, when they hit the road to take on the Tacoma Rainiers for six games. The opener for that set is scheduled for Tuesday at 1:05 p.m., with starting pitchers for both teams yet to be announced.

Newsletter