Sofia Huerta scored on a tiebreaking penalty kick midway through the second half and the Seattle Reign clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 victory over the visiting Utah Royals on Friday night.
Ainsley McCammon scored her first professional goal late in the first half for Seattle (10-7-8, 38 points), which is unbeaten in its last four matches (2-0-2). The Reign jumped into third place in the standings.
Paige Monaghan scored a second-half goal for Utah (5-13-7, 22 points), which lost its second straight match following an eight-game unbeaten stretch (4-0-4).
Huerta, who played for the United States in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, celebrated her 200th career NWSL regular-season match by improving to 6-for-7 on penalty kicks during her stellar career.
The opportunity was set up when Utah’s Bianca St-Georges took down Seattle’s Maddie Mercado in the box. After a review confirmed the penalty call, Huerta stepped up to the spot in the 67th minute and booted a right-footed shot past Utah goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn and into the bottom left corner.
Claudia Dickey had three saves for the Reign, while McGlynn made two stops for the Royals.
McCammon, 18, began the sequence ahead of her milestone goal with a long pass from the right side to the left two minutes into first-half stoppage time.
Maddie Dahlien created some space and sent a cross toward the right of the net. McCammon was there to meet the ball in the box and send a header into the net.
Utah knotted the score in the 61st minute when Monaghan stole the ball from Dahlien just inside the center line and sped downfield. She reached the edge of the box and created some space from Dahlien and delivered a precise left-footed shot into the top left corner.
–Field Level Media
