Golly, Golly, Golly Racing Lou
With four ties to start the season and a record-breaking crowd on hand for their Thunder Over Louisville tie-in, Racing Louisville knew that their Saturday night match against the Utah Royals was a must-win. After four frustrating draws, this team was stepping onto the biggest home stage they’d ever played on. They were set to play in front of thousands of new fans who had never seen Racing and who could easily walk away and attend the simultaneous Thunder air show instead if the game turned sour. They needed to rise to the occasion more than they ever had before and, boy, did they ever.
“We knew we’d have so many fans here, and we just really wanted this for the whole staff, for the community, and I think we just put on a show,” midfielder Savannah DeMelo said. “I’m so proud of the girls.”
Racing Louisville soared past the Utah Royals 5-1 in front of a record home crowd of more than 11,000 fans on Saturday night. The scoring started with Uchenna Kanu getting a first-half header off of a perfect cross from Lauren Milliet. Although the Royals pulled one back and equalized in first-half stoppage time, Racing came into the second half stronger than ever seeing Savannah DeMelo score her first career regular-season brace, and rookies Reilyn Turner and Emma Sears score their first professional goals.
“It feels amazing,” said head coach Bev Yanez after the match. “It feels amazing for this group. They work so hard every single day to be the best that they can be and to be able to have this breakthrough, obviously, it’s something we’ve really wanted and we’ve been yearning for. Having that here at home in front of a record-breaking crowd is the most special moment for all of us.”
Speaking of firsts, this was also Yanez’s first win ever as a head coach which meant she spoke to media drenched in water and Gatorade from her celebrating players. Her players said that as important as winning in front of the record crowd was, winning for their coach mattered, too.
“I think I can speak for all of us, we want to win for her. She’s such an amazing coach,” Sears said. “The feeling is one we’ll never forget as a team and she’ll never forget, and hopefully we can just keep riding the wave.”
In so many ways, this match is more than just a win for Racing Louisville. The scoreline, the setting, the crowd, how they won it — all these things individually would make the game a standout, but taken…
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