By Rachel Huser
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AREA SPORTS NETWORK)– The Chicago Red Stars tallied a 1-0 win against the OL Reign on a cloudy afternoon on June 4.
The match was a tough one. The Red Stars are in the midst of five matches in two weeks. The win against OL Reign marks their third. After just two full days of rest, compared to OL Reign’s full week of rest, they were able to pull out a win thanks to a Mallory Pugh goal.
But that didn’t come until the second half. The first half saw a couple of shots from both sides, with a few amazing saves by each keeper. It was littered with a pair of yellow cards, including one to the Red Stars bench. Each team also saw a few corner kicks, but by half it was scoreless.
Pugh scored a beautiful upper 90 goal in the 46 minutes of the match with an assist from Sam Fisher after a few shots from the United States Women’s National Team player. Pugh earned the Budweiser Player of the Match because of her stellar performance.
The remainder of the game was physical with both teams using some of their substitutions. Fisher, who had the assist, came on at the start of the second half for Sarah Griffith. In the 64-minute, Ella Stevens came on for Ava Cook, Rachel Hill came on for Jill Aguilera, and Alyssa Mautz came on for Sarah Luebbert in the 76-minute. In the 90th minute, Yuki Nagasato came on for Vanessa DiBernardo.
After five minutes of extra time, the Red Stars sealed the deal with Pugh’s goal.
“It felt good, relieving, actually to get a clean sheet and pull out this win,” defender Zoe Morse said at the post-match press conference.
The Red Stars’ next match is Wednesday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois.