The FC Dallas Women extended their season-opening win streak with a 3-1 defeat of Pines 1779 on Sunday afternoon, bringing their undefeated record to 3-0-0 in their first WPSL season.
After shutting out their opponents in the last two matches, FCD's shutout streak was broken late in the second half when goalkeeper Kelsey Devonshire was beat for the first time all season. Dallas has now outscored their opponents 13-1 through three games.
The match started slow and Dallas turned over several balls early, giving Pines 1779 several opportunities but they couldn’t capitalize on any of the shots. Dallas got the game under control when Casie Ramsier opened scoring with a goal in the 25th minute, with an assist from Natalie Schmutz, to give a Dallas an early 1-0 lead. Chestley Strother followed with another goal in the 35th minute to make it 2-0 before halftime.
Rikki Clarke saw an opportunity late in the game when the Pines goalkeeper came forward and left Jade Bell open, giving Bell the perfect chance to hook the ball into the back of the net to seal a 3-0 lead. Pines 1779 avoided the shut out with less than ten minutes to play, bringing the final score to 3-1.
FCD Women’s Head Coach Ben Waldrum said there are still some defensive details the team needs to clean up and address in practice before the next match, but he was happy with Sunday’s result.
“We keep building off each win,” Waldrum said. “I think what’s going to happen, we’ll see through the season, the more and more time we get together, the better off we’re going to be. We hope to continue to get better and that’s the target.”
Waldrum also said the busy schedule this last week played a huge factor in how the team performed, leading to more substitutions and rotating, which broke up the rhythm of the game.
“You can tell we’ve got some tired legs but we were able to sub a lot which helped us,” said goal-scorer Casie Ramsier. “We tried to keep the pace up as much as we could.”
Ramsier said the team needs to continue building and working on the style they want to show, as well as recovering as much as possible with the season’s packed schedule.
“The lineup changes so you get to play with some players one day, and others on a different day,” Ramsier said. “We’re trying to get used to each other, but we’re trying to figure that out fast.”
The FCD Women are slated to play against the Texas Spurs next on Wednesday, June 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Tundra Field #2 at the Toyota Soccer Center in Frisco.