The Thorns jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in San Jose against Bay FC on Wednesday night, only to let the hosts draw level before a late goal was the difference in a 3-2 win. Sophia Smith scored twice for the Thorns while Payton Linnehan scored the opener, while Racheal Kundananji and Deyna Castellanos scored for Bay FC.
It only took a minute and a half for the Thorns to get on the board, as Sophia Smith played a pass to Payton Linnehan, who beat Lysianne Proulx with a hard shot to the upper left corner, and the Thorns were out to a quick 1-0 lead.
In the seventh minute, the Thorns doubled their lead when Linnehan’s pass to Smith had her in alone on the Bay keeper, and Smith rounded the keeper and scored easily to make it 2-0.
But in the 41st minute, Bay FC would pull back a goal when Racheal Kundananji made a nice cut back inside the Thorns box, then beat Shelby Hogan with a nice shot inside the right post, and the Thorns lead was now 2-1, which would be the score at halftime.
Early in the second half, Bay FC came within inches of tying the score when Kundananji’s shot was off the right post. The Thorns had scarcely attacked since their second goal, and it came back to haunt them when in the 60th minute, Kundananji stole the ball at midfield and made a long run, then made a nice last-chance pass to Deyna Castellanos, who finished from close-in, and the score was level at 2-2.
In the 78th minute, the Thorns finally rediscovered their offense when Smith unexpectedly let go a dangerous shot from the top of the box, and though Proulx got a hand on the ball, she couldn’t keep it out of the net, and the Thorns retook the lead at 3-2.
Despite playing several minutes late in the match down a woman when Morgan Weaver left with what appeared to be a knee injury, the Thorns held on for the 3-2 win, their third in a row after starting the season winless in their first four matches.
